The Nestlé research center in Lausanne
ZURICH (Archyde.com) – Nestle on Wednesday reported better-than-expected sales for the first nine months of the year and raised its forecast for the whole of 2022 as the Swiss food giant passed to pass on price increases to its customers.
For the full year, Nestlé is now targeting organic growth of around 8%, compared to a previous estimate of 7%-8%.
The maker of KitKat chocolate bars and Nescafé instant coffee posted January-September sales of 69.1 billion Swiss francs (70.58 billion euros), while a consensus compiled by the group on gave 68.9 billion francs.
Organic growth, which excludes the impact of exchange rate movements and acquisitions, reached 8.5% over the first nine months of the year, a figure also above the consensus (8.3%) which is the strongest organic growth of the company since 2008.
“We delivered strong organic growth by continuing to responsibly adjust prices to reflect inflation,” chief executive Mark Schneider said in a statement.
He nevertheless expressed concern about the “difficult economic context”, which he said is impacting the purchasing power of many customers.
Nestlé confirms that it is aiming for a full-year operating margin of around 17%.
The group has also announced that it plans to buy the Seattle’s Best coffee chain from Starbucks but without revealing the amount of the transaction, which should be concluded by the end of 2022.
(Reportage by John Revill, French version by Kate Entringer, edited by Marc Angrand)