VEVEY (dpa-AFX) - Nestle SA (NSRGY.PK, NSTR.L), a Swiss food and beverage major, on Thursday reported a decline in sales for the nine-month period. Foreign exchange impact hurt sales by 4.1 percent and net divestitures by 0.3 percent.
Laurent Freixe, CEO of Nestle, said: 'Consumer demand has weakened in recent months, and we expect the demand environment to remain soft. Given this outlook and our further actions to reduce customer inventories in the fourth quarter, we have updated our full-year guidance, with organic sales growth expected to be around 2%, in line with the first nine months.'
For the nine-month period, the Group registered sales of CHF67.148 billion, lower than CHF68.829 billion, recorded for the same period last year.
Sales of North America Zone stood at CHF18.524 billion as against prior year's CHF19.027 billion.
Looking ahead, for the full year, given the consumer environment and further actions to reduce customer inventories in the fourth quarter, full-year guidance has been revised.
Nestle now expects underlying earnings per share growth in constant currency to be broadly flat, compared with earlier expectation for an increase at a mid single-digit rate.
Organic sales growth is now seen around 2 percent, lower than prior outlook for a growth of at least 3 percent.
Underlying trading operating profit margin is expected to be at around 17 percent.
Copyright(c) 2024 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2024 AFX News
