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)