Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke said: “The increased momentum of real internal growth in the third quarter, coming on top of high growth in 2008, once again proves the strength of Nestlé’s strategy. In these challenging times, we have been streamlining our structures and product portfolio and at the same time we continue to invest in innovative technologies and expand our R&D capabilities around the world. In addition, we’ve increased spending in product innovation and consumer-facing brand support. All this allows me to confirm my expectation that volume-driven organic growth will further accelerate, and that the Ebit margin in constant currencies will improve for the full year.”
In the first nine months of 2009, the Nestlé Group achieved organic growth of 3.6%. Real internal growth reached 1.0% having accelerated throughout the year and across most segments of the business. Divestitures, net of acquisitions, had a negative impact of -0.6% on group sales, as did the currency effect of -5.2% due to the strength of the Swiss franc compared to most other currencies. These two factors contributed to a reduction in Nestlé Group sales of -2.2%, to SFr79.5bn.
Organic growth for Nestlé’s food and beverage business was 3.5%. Real internal growth accelerated in the third quarter to reach 0.7% for the nine months from 0.1% at the half year. This improvement was evident in each region, resulting in organic growth of 4.4% in the Americas, 0.9% in Europe and 6.5% in Asia, Oceania and Africa for Nestlé’s total food and beverage businesses.
Source: Nestlé SA
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024