Food giant Nestle confirmed organic sales should grow more than 3.6 per cent this year after strong demand for coffee, dairy and petcare products boosted growth in the first quarter.
The world’s biggest food group has weathered the Covid-19 pandemic well so far as consumers locked up at home bought more packaged foods for themselves and their pets.
It also expanded ecommerce and its health science portfolio as consumers bought more online and worried about their health.
Organic sales increased by 7.7 per cent, versus 4.3 per cent in the year-ago period, the maker of KitKat chocolate bars and Nescafe instant coffee said in a statement on Thursday. This was ahead of a forecast for 3.3 per cent organic growth in a company-compiled consensus https://www.nestle.com/investors/analysts-consensus.
“Retail sales saw solid growth and out-of-home channels saw signs of improvement. We confirm our guidance for the year and our mid-term outlook for sustained mid single-digit organic growth,” Chief Executive Mark Schneider said in the statement.
Organic growth stood at 7.2 per cent in the Americas, at 4.4 per cent in Europe and at 9.1 per cent in Asia, Nestle said. Asia was in negative territory in the year-ago period as the pandemic hit there first.
In terms of categories, petcare was up 8.7 per cent, powdered and liquid beverages including coffee rose 9.9 per cent, and dairy increased 15.7 per cent. Nutrition and health science fell 0.5 per cent, dragged down by nutrition.
- Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz
