2nd UPDATE: Lindt 1st Half Net Down 88%, Fails To Offset Cost Rise

Swiss premium chocolate maker Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Spruengli AG (LISN.EB) Tuesday said first-half net profit tumbled 88% due to charges for U.S. shop closures and high input costs, but it said that an ongoing restructuring should result in better profitability.

The Kilchberg, Switzerland-based maker of a variety of milk and dark chocolate products under the Lindor, Excellence and Ghirardelli brands posted a net profit of 2.7 million Swiss francs ($2.5 million) down from CHF22.9 million a year earlier. Some market watchers had been looking for a net loss, because Lindt posts only 40% of its annual sales in the first half while booking half of the costs in that period.

Organic growth was at a slim 0.2%, below analyst expectations ranging from 1%-4%.

The company's failure to offset a rise in input cost, mainly cocoa, by hiking selling prices is disappointing, food industry analyst James Amoroso said. However, this isn't due to any weakness on the part of the brand. "Lindt merely missed its chance last year when such price increases would have been readily accepted, as was the case for Cadbury, Nestle, Hershey and the others," Amoroso said.

He said he doesn't expect the company to face any pressure from private label manufacturers because "consumers love Lindt products and they are not expensive relative to what they deliver."

The organic growth rate was clearly worse than comparable figures of some rivals, Helvea analyst Andreas von Arx said, referring to an advance of 3.4% at Nestle S.A.'s (NESN.VX) food and beverages operations.

Part of Lindt's shortfall is likely due to the shuttering of some U.S. selling points, he added. The analyst has a neutral rating and CHF1,975 target price.

Lindt repeated its guidance for an organic growth rate of 2%-5% and earnings before interest and taxes of CHF260 million to CHF280 million for the full year. It lowered those goals in March when announcing the restructuring.

Zuercher Kantonalbank analyst Patrik Schwendimann, who recently upgraded the stock to market outperform from market perform, said he expects the company to return to an organic growth rate of 6%-8% from 2011 at the latest.

In the first half, the company booked charges of CHF22.2 million due to shop closures in the U.S. in a move to concentrate on flagship stores, and an impairment of a warehouse building in Italy.

Sales slipped to CHF979 million from CHF1.03 billion.

On the Swiss bourse at 0835 GMT, the Lindt certificate, its more liquid security, was down CHF45, or 2%, to CHF2,268, in a lower general market.

Company Web site: http://www.lindt.com

-By Martin Gelnar, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]