Nestle's Nine-Month Organic Sales Growth Missed Expectations--Update

By Giulia Petroni

Nestle posted a lower-than-expected organic sales growth in the first nine months of the year and confirmed its outlook.

The Swiss food and beverage giant said sales stood at 68.83 billion Swiss francs ($76.57 billion) in the period from CHF69.13 billion a year earlier. Sales grew 7.8% organically, missing a company-compiled consensus estimate of 8.1%.

Organic growth was driven by pricing at 8.4%, while real internal growth--the sum of volume and mix--came in line with expectations at minus 0.6%.

"Growth was driven by pricing as we continued to navigate historic inflation levels. The recovery of our volume and mix is underway," Chief Executive Mark Schneider said.

Nestle said it expects real internal growth to turn positive in the second half.

The company confirmed its full-year guidance for organic sales growth of between 7% and 8%, and underlying trading operating profit margin between 17% and 17.5%. Underlying earnings per share in constant currency are expected to increase between 6% and 10%.

Write to Giulia Petroni at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 19, 2023 02:17 ET (06:17 GMT)

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