Mexico City, July 25 - Bimbo, the world's No. 3 bread maker, reported a 15 percent decline in second-quarter profit on Wednesday hurt by rising costs of both raw materials and distribution in certain regions. Bimbo (BIMBOA.MX: Quote, Profile, Research) earned 743 million pesos ($69 million) in the April-June period compared with 874 million pesos in the second quarter of last year.
Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting Bimbo to post quarterly earnings of 870 million pesos.
"Despite some relief in commodity prices, raw materials continued to put significant pressure on the company's gross margin, which declined by 60 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2006," Bimbo said.
Quarterly revenue came in at 16.967 billion pesos, up from 15.791 billion pesos a year ago, driven by its core Mexican market, but its operations in the United States and across Latin America also grew.