Yakult Honsha Co. said Friday its group sales and pretax profit for the first half of fiscal 2003 declined slightly from year-before levels.
In its consolidated earnings report for the April-September period, Yakult Honsha said its pretax profit dropped 11.7 percent from a year earlier to 15.04 billion yen on a 0.3 percent fall in sales to 124.09 billion yen.
The fermented lactic drink manufacturer blamed sluggish personal consumption and unseasonably low summer temperatures for the declines.
But its net profit increased 17 percent to 10.93 billion yen because the company booked a one-time profit of 5.91 billion yen after returning the portion of public pension assets it had managed on behalf of the government, it said.