Nestlé achieved growth in the first half of the year, but is not entirely satisfied. Profit did grow almost 20 %, but it did face a huge one-off tax burden in 2016.
Low prices
In the first half of the year, Nestlé’s turnover grew 2.3 % organically to 43.02 billion Swiss francs (38.4 billion euro): 1.4 % came from higher volumes and 0.9 % because of higher prices. However, that did not entirely meet CEO Mark Schneider’s expectations. “While volume growth remains at the high end of our industry, pricing continues to be soft.”
Net profit grew 19 % to 4.9 billion Swiss francs (4.4 billion euro), but a one-off payment of deferred taxes was made in 2016, impacting the growth this year and limiting last year’s profit numbers.
Turnover grew organically by 1 % in Europe, but reported turnover did slump 10.3 %, mainly because of a 2 % negative exchange rate impact and the transfer of its ice cream brands into the Froneri joint venture.
Nestlé maintains its 2017 forecast, predicting a 2 to 4 % autonomous growth.
