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Reckitt Benckiser (RB) has followed in the footsteps of fellow consumer goods giant Unilever by announcing a “good start” to the financial year. The group’s 5% rise in like-for-like revenues soundly beat analysts’ expectations of 3.9%. The performance was led by strong growth from the consumer health division, up 13% on the first quarter of 2014 to £709m.

Total sales at Reckitt climbed 1% on a reported basis to £2.2bn for the quarter. There was little commentary on margins in the trading statement, but CEO Rakesh Kapoor said Project Supercharge, the new three-year restructuring plan, had been “fully embraced” by the organisation and was creating a “more efficient and effective RB”.

“Our focused strategy is paying off and has delivered a good Q1 against a backdrop of stable developed markets and mixed emerging markets,” he added. “A strong and broad-based performance from our consumer health brands continues to deliver growth and outperformance, aided by a strong flu season. In hygiene, Dettol, Lysol and Harpic performed well, offset elsewhere by tough market conditions.”

Reckitt held its full-year targets of 4% like-for-like net revenue growth and moderate to “nice” operating margin expansion.

Shares in the group are trading 0.9% up today at 6,089p.

Morning update

Stevia producer PureCircle has agreed to acquire the remaining 1.38% equity interest in PureCircle Jiangxi Co for $1.8m. Recent regulatory developments in China’s foreign ownership restrictions have allowed PureCircle to take control of the remaining interest of the business. Its current interest of 98.62% is held through a wholly owned subsidiary. PureCircle Jiangxi makes and sells crude stevia extract with operations in China and the group said it was an “important component” of the supply chain.

Divisional sales at Waitrose, excluding petrol, fell by a whopping 18.1% last week, compared with the 11th week of the previous year. However, the numbers are not as dramatic as they first appear as they are distorted by a later Easter in 2014. The drag effect of food price deflation on fresh produce continued to be apparent, Waitrose said in its weekly update. The price of an iceberg lettuce this year is 60p compared to £1 last year, and a pack of mixed peppers now costs £1 compared to £1.75 a year ago, it added. Personnel director Helen Hyde also highlighted soaring sales of Charlie Bigham’s ready meal, up by 86%, and Waitrose classic Traditional British meals also saw a 20% increase. “This also seemed to spur sales of the Waitrose food-to-go range, up 25% year on year, with sushi and salads up 40% and 64% respectively.”

Yesterday in the City

The three listed grocers all gained back a fraction of the losses they made on Wednesday. Tesco (TSCO) finished 1.2% up at 225.3p, Sainsbury’s (SBRY) clawed back 1.5% to 267p and Morrisons (MRW) jumped 1.6% to 193.5p. The rivals all suffered as the City reacted to Tesco’s monstrous annual loss of £6.4bn, sending shares plunging 5.2% to 222.7p, 3.7% to 263p and 4.1% to 190.4p respectively.

The FTSE 100 also made back yesterday’s losses to close 0.4% higher at 7,053.7 points.

Tate & Lyle (TATE) lost more ground, however, on top of Wednesday’s 5.3% drop. The stock fell another 0.7% to 604p on the back of it realigning the business.

The biggest loser yesterday, in terms of share price at least, was value butchery chain Crawshaw, which slumped 7.8% to 50.3p despite positive full-year figures. The AIM-listed company reported a 17% uplift in group sales as turnover rose from £21m to £24.6m in the year to 31 January 2015. Crawshaw said pre-tax profits were up from £1m to £1.2m and EBITDA rose 15% to £1.6m.

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