(Reuters) - Cadbury chocolate maker Mondelez International Inc <MDLZ.O> raised its 2019 organic sales forecast on Tuesday, as the company benefits from efforts to tailor its products to the tastes and trends of certain geographies.
The confectioner has been aggressively investing in marketing to local geographies such as India and China, as well as on packaging such as those based on popular entertainment titles like the "Game of Thrones" themed Oreo packs in North America.
Mondelez has previously told Reuters "the big bulk" of a $150 million (£123.3 million) increase in global investment this year - the first hike in five years - will be in rural India.
The efforts lifted the company's second-quarter organic sales, which exclude the impact from acquisitions and currency, 7.6% in emerging markets.
Mondelez said it expects full-year organic net revenue to rise over 3%, compared to a prior forecast of 2% to 3%.
The Toblerone maker also raised prices in Latin America for its cookies, gum and chocolates, joining other packaged food companies to battle higher raw material and labour costs.
Pricing in Latin America rose 11.5 percentage points, the company said.
Net revenue slipped 0.8% to $6.06 billion (£4.9 billion) in the three months ended June 30, but beat analysts' average estimate of $6.03 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Excluding items, the company earned 57 cents per share, in line with analysts' average estimate.
The company's shares rose 1.5% to $55.65 in extended trading.
(Reporting by Aditi Sebastian; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
