CHICAGO — Net earnings more than doubled at Mondelez International, Inc. in the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2023. Net revenues increased by over 14% despite a fourth-quarter decline in North America.

“I’m pleased to share that we delivered our best year ever in 2023 with robust top-line growth, continued share improvements, record profit dollar growth and strong total shareholder return,” said Dirk Van de Put, chief executive officer, in a Jan. 30 earnings call. “Our double-digit top line performance was driven by strong pricing execution and positive volume/mix growth. We also delivered continued share improvements as consumers across the globe remain very engaged with our iconic snacking brands. We set another record for gross profit dollar growth achieving $2.2 billion through ongoing cost discipline and sound pricing to offset cost inflation as well as volume leverage.”

Net earnings of $4.96 billion, equal to $3.64 per share on the common stock, compared with the previous year’s net income of $2.72 billion, or $1.97 per share. Adjusted operating income increased by $939 million at constant currency while adjusted operating income margin increased 10 basis points to 15.9%, driven primarily by higher net pricing; lower manufacturing costs driven by productivity, selling, general and administrative (SG and A) expenses leverage; and favorable product mix.

Net revenue increased 14% to $36.02 billion from $31.50 billion behind organic net revenue growth of 15%, incremental sales from the 2022 acquisitions of Clif Bar and Ricolino, and incremental sales from a short-term distributor agreement. Offsets were currency swings and a divestiture. Underlying volume/mix was up 1.3%. Oreo, Milka and Cadbury, the company’s three biggest brands, had over $10 billion in net revenues.

“We continue accelerating our focus on our core categories for chocolate, biscuits and baked snacks because these categories offer attractive growth and profitability,” Van de Put said. “We remain on track to deliver 90% of our revenue through these core categories.”

Chicago-based Mondelez held or gained share in 65% of its revenue base, said Luca Zaramella, chief financial officer.

“Given the amount of pricing we took in the last couple of years, we see this as a strong accomplishment, and our brand investments, both from a quantity and quality standpoint, clearly played a role,” he said.

During the call Van de Put was asked about the state of North American consumers.

“So what they’re doing is still reflecting sort of the tension they’re under, but they are expecting the economy to improve and that better times are ahead for them,” he said. “So what are they doing? We see a little bit more of an elasticity effect, and the way they react to that is they’re waiting more. We see particularly light buyers waiting for promotion, so not buying with the same frequency but buying more when it’s on promotion.

“We see them downsizing, going to smaller formats and buying more of those. We see shift in channels. They go to club channels, e-commerce channels. That’s the one we see winning. And then we have a number of sort of mechanical effects that we’re seeing, particularly the SNAP reduction in the US, and so we see less disposable income for a certain group of consumers.”

In North America, net revenue increased over 14% to $11.08 billion in the fiscal year, but in the fourth quarter it fell 1.1% to $2.78 billion, which compared to growth of almost 20% in the previous year’s fourth quarter. Volume/mix in North America was flat for the year and down by over 5% in the fourth quarter.

“Full-year growth was driven by higher pricing, broad-based strength across brands, and channels and solid volume/mix,” Zaramella said. “In Q4, volume declined as a result of a softening US biscuit category, tight inventory management in advance of Q1 pricing and declines in Give & Go increased. Give & Go was impacted by our decision to release some of the holiday’s gingerbread kits, being low profit. We continue to be very happy with Give & Go overall.”

Net revenue in emerging markets increased 15% to $14.01 billion in the fiscal year. Conflict in the Middle East has pressured volume/mix performance for Western consumer brands, including Mondelez brands, Zaramella said.

Van de Put added, “We expect that to continue in Q1 and Q2, but gradually, over the year, that will fade away.”

In the fourth quarter companywide, Mondelez had net income of $950 million, or 70¢ per share on the common stock, which was up 63% from $583 million, or 43¢ per share, in the same time of the previous year. Net revenues increased by over 7% to $9.31 billion from $8.70 billion with organic net revenue growth of nearly 10%. Volume/mix was down 0.4%.

In the current fiscal year Mondelez expects revenue to increase at the upper end of the 3% to 5% range. Zaramella said Mondelez expects inflation in high single-digit percentages in the fiscal year.