Brown-Forman Corp., Louisville, Ky., reported financial results for the second quarter and first half of its fiscal-year 2014, which ended Oct. 31. In the second quarter, the company’s reported net sales grew by 6 percent to nearly $1.1 billion and reported operating income grew 19 percent to $311 million compared with the prior-year period. For the first six months of the year, reported net sales increased 4 percent and reported operating income increased 9 percent.
The company’s underlying net sales growth of 7 percent in the first half of the fiscal year was driven by geographically balanced revenue growth, it says. In the United States, underlying net sales grew 5 percent, driven by the combination of strong price/mix and volume growth.