Glanbia shares fall 11% as sports nutrition products struggle

DUBLIN, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Shares in nutrition group Glanbia fell by more than 10% on Thursday after it reported continued weakness in sales of products aimed at athletes and body builders.

The Irish company said sales volumes in its performance nutrition business were weaker than expected because it faced currency and tariff headwinds in major non-US markets, including Brazil, Middle East and India. A shift to online sales in Europe also had an impact.

Prices fell 1.4% and volumes were down 7.9% in the third quarter in performance nutrition business, it said.

Glanbia shares had fallen sharply after its second-quarter results in July, when the performance nutrition division had a 30% drop in core earnings.

Measures to improve the performance of the business will continue into next year, Group Managing Director Siobhan Talbot said in a statement.

"With non-U.S. GPN (Glanbia Performance Nutrition) challenges continuing into FY20, we consider the risks to be skewed to the downside for our FY20 forecasts," Goodbody Stockbrokers said in a note.

A strong performance in other areas of the business allowed Glanbia to maintain its forecast for adjusted earnings per share of between 88 and 92 cents for 2019.

Glanbia shares were down 10.8% at 9.82 euros at 09:20 GMT. (Reporting by Conor Humphries. Editing by Jane Merriman)