Vevey / CH. (nsa) Swiss Nestle S.A. announces a 4.2 percent organic growth and 2.0 percent real internal growth for the sales in the first nine months 2015. CEO Paul Bulcke: «After a good performance in the first half of the year we were impacted in the third quarter by exceptional events, with Maggi noodles in India and a rebate adjustment in Nestle Skin Health».
«Yet our real internal growth increased, reflecting broad-based positive momentum across our business and many of our markets. There was continued solid performance in Europe, Nestle Waters and Nestle Health Science. We made good progress in much of Latin America and delivered a significant improvement in North America, especially in frozen food, contrasting with slower sales recovery in China. On the whole, organic growth fell short of our expectations and therefore we project organic growth of around 4.5 percent for the full year, with improvements in margins and underlying earnings per share in constant currencies, and capital efficiency».
Group results
In the first nine months of 2015 organic growth was 4.2 percent, composed of 2.0 percent real internal growth and 2.2 percent pricing. Total sales of 64.9 billion CHF were impacted by foreign exchange (minus 6.7 percent). Acquisitions, net of divestitures, added 0.4 percent to sales. The Group continued to grow in its three geographies with organic growth of 6.2 percent in the Americas (AMS), 4.0 percent in Europe, Middle East and North Africa (EMENA) and 1.1 percent in Asia, Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa (AOA).
- AMS: Sales of 18.5 billion CHF, 5.8 percent organic growth, 1.2 percent real internal growth
- EMENA: Sales of 12.0 billion CHF, 4.1 percent organic growth, 2.5 percent real internal growth
- AOA: Sales of 10.5 billion CHF, minus 0.5 percent organic growth, minus 1.4 percent real internal growth
Earlier this month Nestle announced that it is in advanced discussions with R+R, a leading ice cream company, to set up a joint venture to which Nestle would contribute its ice cream businesses in Europe and four other countries, and its European frozen food business, excluding pizza. The proposed joint venture brings together the complementary strengths of each company and creates a leading player in ice cream.
Outlook
For the full year, Nestle projects organic growth of around 4.5 percent with improvements in margins and underlying earnings per share in constant currencies, and capital efficiency (Image: Nestle AG).
