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Colgate profit falls due to Venezuela charge


    CHICAGO (Reuters) - Colgate-Palmolive Co posted a sharp rise in sales, but profit fell as it took a hefty charge to account for hyper-inflation in Venezuela.

    The toothpaste maker said its results bode well for another year of double-digit earnings-per-share growth in 2010.

    Colgate earned $357 million, or 69 cents per share, versus a profit of $508 million, or 97 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding the charge related to Venezuela, profit rose to $628 million, or $1.21 per share.

    Sales rose 9.5 percent to $3.83 billion, while the volume of goods sold rose 6 percent.

    Colgate is about one-fifth the size of Procter & Gamble Co , which also will report quarterly results on Thursday.

    (Reporting by Jessica Wohl, editing by Maureen Bavdek)