SWITZERLAND: Nestle first-quarter sales beat estimates on higher prices | Progresiv
Organic sales rose 4.4 per cent, with pricing contributing 2.5 percentage points of the growth. The rebound in Nestle’s home region comes as it faces a sluggish Chinese market and seeks to revive the ailing Lean Cuisine frozen-food brand in North America. 
“The beat to expectations was slightly less compelling than that of Unilever given it was driven more by price,” said Andrew Wood, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said.
“The big negative is Asia, Oceania and Africa,” said Jean-Philippe Bertschy, an analyst at Bank Vontobel AG in Zurich. “That’s going really poorly.”
Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe said the Nespresso maker needs to speed up structural changes as industry mergers and acquisitions threaten to heighten competition.
Total revenue rose to 20.92 billion francs, missing the 21.2 billion franc median estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg as growth was almost wiped out by declines of currencies against the Swiss franc. Nestle’s definition of organic growth excludes acquisitions, divestments and currency shifts. (www.esmmagazine.com)
