Strong European performance boosts Nestlé’s Q1 sales | Progresiv
Nestlé has reported strong sales figures in its first-quarter results driven by sales growth in Europe and increased sales across the company’s product range. 
Nestlé’s overall sales increased 1.4% year-on-year to 21.9 billion dollars, while sales in Europe, the Middle-East and North Africa increased 6.3% to 4.85 billion dollars thanks to the relaunch of Nescafé Gold in the UK and increased demand for infant nutrition and dairy products in the Middle East. The company’s Nutrition & Health Science products were the company’s strongest performers in terms of sales growth, with recorded sales of 3.9 billion dollars representing organic growth of 4.1% compared to last year’s figures.
Nestlé’s 2.3 billion dollars acquisition of vitamin and supplement manufacturer Atrium Innovationswas fully-consolidated at the beginning of March, and this contributed to increased sales growth of 2.7% by Nestlé’s ‘Other Businesses’.
However, the sale of the company’s US confectionery business to Ferrero weighed on Nestlé’s results in the Americas, as sales fell 4.2% to 7 billion dollars from last year’s 7.3 billion dollars.
Despite this, organic growth in the Americas actually increased 1.2%, driven by the strong performance of the Coffee Mate brand and increased sales from the company’s petcare business.
Sales in Asia, Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa increased 2.3% to 5.5 billion dollars, while organic growth in the region rose 4.7%, which the company partly attributed to the timing of Chinese New Year and the strong performance of the KitKat and Maggi brands.
Mark Schneider, Nestlé CEO said: “We are pleased to report a solid start to the year, with all regions contributing to our growth. Our volume growth improved noticeably while pricing remained soft. (www.foodbev.com)
