Sales boost drives Almarai profits up by 13.4% in third quarter

Saudi Arabia’s Almarai, the Gulf’s largest dairy company, has reported a 13.4% increase in third-quarter net profit, slightly beating analysts’ forecasts as sales rose.

Almarai made a profit of 539.4 million riyals (€113m) in the three months to September 30, up from 475.6 million riyals in the year-earlier period.

Eight analysts polled by Reuters had forecast on average that Almarai would make a quarterly profit of 520 million riyals.

The firm said third-quarter sales rose 11.7% to 3.27 billion riyals.

Separately, Almarai said a fire had caused “significant” damage at one of its bakeries in Jeddah last week.