Volumes under pressure at Nestle

(Sharecast News) - Swiss consumer goods giant Nestle reported a fall in volumes on Thursday, as prices continued to rise. The owner of KitKat, Haagen-Dazs, Nespresso and Purina pet food, among many others, reported organic growth of 7.8% in the first nine months of the year, while prices rose 8.4%.

Real internal growth, however - a key measure of sales volumes - fell 0.6%, which Nestle attributed to portfolio optimisation and capacity constraints.

Most analysts had also been looking for organic sales growth of around 8.1%. Organic growth strips out the impact of foreign exchange and acquisitions,

Total reported sales eased 0.4% to CHF68.8bn (£63.3bn), with forex headwinds pushing down the figure by 7.4%.

Mark Schneider, chief executive, said: "Growth was driven by pricing, as we continued to navigate historic inflation levels. The recovery of our volume and mix is underway. We are seeing the benefits of our portfolio optimisation initiatives and increased marketing investment behind our billionaire brands.

"These steps underpin our confidence that real internal growth - the sum of volume and mix - will turn positive in the second half and again become the main driver of growth going forward."

Nestle reiterated its full-year outlook for organic sales growth between 7% and 8%, and for an underlying trading profit margin of between 17% and 17.5%.

Underlying earnings per share in constant currency are forecast to increase by between 6% and 10%.

As at 1215 BST, shares in Nestle were trading down 2%.