Article from:  Dow Jones Newswires

BRAMBLES, the world's largest supplier of pallets, says full-year earnings fell 30 per cent, but sales remained resilient despite the slowing global economy.

Net profit to June 30 fell to $US452.6 million ($544.9m) from $US648.7m a year earlier.

Group sales revenue fell 8 per cent to $US4.02billion from $US4.36bn, but was up 1 per cent in constant currency terms.

Brambles operates in more than 45 countries, generating over 80 per cent of its revenue and earnings from its CHEP pallet pooling businesses, which leases about 300 million blue wooden pallets and plastic containers to cart goods around the globe. The remainder of earnings come from its global Recall information management unit.

Weak economic conditions hurt CHEP's automotive division and Recall's document destruction business, where revenues fell 23 per cent and 13 per cent respectively on-year, but the firm said new business wins and price and mix gains across both its divisions had offset weak organic sales volumes. Underlying profit after tax from its continuing operations but before significant items -- a measure widely watched by analysts -- fell 17 per cent to $US534.3m from a restated $US640.0m. "Even though our underlying profitability ... has been adversely affected by a number of factors, we expect many of those will turn around quickly when markets improve," said chief executive Mike Ihlein.

Brambles is due to finalise a review of its US CHEP operations next month and will unveil the results in October.

The firm said it is encouraged by early signs of improving macroeconomic stability in a number of its major markets recently, with evidence that destocking by its customers over the last year is coming to an end.

"As global markets recover, we should experience a return to our traditional stronger rate of sales revenue growth reflecting both organic growth and new business wins," Mr Ihlein said.

The group declared a final dividend of 12.5c per share, down from 17.5c.