Mixed Results For Makers Of Products For The Home

Makers of household consumer and food products reported mixed results Wednesday, as they raised prices on everything from hot dogs to toothpaste to offset soaring energy and ingredient costs.

The Procter & Gamble Company, the maker of Pampers diapers and Gillette razors, said that higher retail prices, cost controls and strong growth in emerging markets helped lift its third-quarter profit 8 percent. The company also raised its full-year outlook, sending its shares up 3 percent.

A. G. Lafley, the chief executive, said the company remains optimistic about sustaining its growth because of daily uses for its many household brands such as Charmin toilet paper, Crest toothpaste and Tide detergent.

“Virtually everything we sell is not discretionary; it’s a staple,” Mr. Lafley said on a conference call.

Procter & Gamble, based in Cincinnati, said it expects costs to keep climbing, has increased spending on marketing, and will raise more prices this summer.

Its rival, the Colgate-Palmolive Company, whose products include its namesake toothpaste and dish soap, said first-quarter earnings fell 4 percent as the company took restructuring charges and a higher provision for income taxes. Colgate, based in New York, said rising materials costs were offset by higher prices, but that margins would be pressured as the cost of raw materials keeps rising.

Analysts questioned Colgate-Palmolive executives on whether they had been slow to lift prices and to anticipate the impact of rising costs for agricultural commodities. The company will raise Colgate toothpaste prices by 9 percent this summer. “If gross margin pressures persist, one leg of the Colgate growth stool falls off, which could start to impact growth as advertising spending is reduced,” a Deutsche Bank analyst, Bill Schmitz Jr., said in a note to clients.

Colgate-Palmolive reported solid growth in Latin American markets and said its toothpaste business was strong in China, India and Russia.

Among food companies, the Kellogg Company’s first-quarter profit fell 2 percent, despite recent price increases by the company, which makes cereal, Pop-Tarts toaster pastries and Eggo frozen waffles.

Kellogg, based in Battle Creek, Mich., raised wholesale prices an average of 3.2 percent across much of its product portfolio, said a spokeswoman, Kris Charles. Prices went up for snacks at the end of December and for cereal and frozen products in late January.

At Kraft Foods, the nation’s largest food and beverage maker, first-quarter earnings fell 13 percent, also amid higher costs for ingredients. Kraft, which makes Oscar Mayer hot dogs, Maxwell House coffee and Oreo cookies, benefited from nearly across-the-board price increases.

Kraft’s profit decline also came because earnings in the same period last year were raised by a one-time benefit related to the company’s spinoff from the Altria Group. Kraft is based in Northfield, Ill.

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