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NESTLE

Nestlé reports 11-percent jump in sales

The world's biggest food company Nestlé reported on Thursday an 11-percent rise in sales during the first nine months of the year to 67.6 billion francs ($73.1 billion), and confirmed its full-year guidance.

Nestlé reports 11-percent jump in sales
Photo: Nestlé

The group said in a statement it had grown "in line with our expectations" during the January-September period.

The company had achieved 11.7-percent organic growth in emerging markets amid an improved product range.

In "intensely competitive developed markets," it had meanwhile managed to grow 2.4 percent, "in spite of a general economic malaise and low levels of consumer confidence," company chief executive Paul Bulcke said in the statement.

"Our continued momentum in real internal growth, combined with some easing of input cost pressures, allows us to confirm our full-year outlook," he said.

The Swiss company said it expected to achieve between 5.0 and 6.0 percent organic growth this year, as well as "improved margin and underlying earnings per share in constant currencies."

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NESTLE

‘Unlimited resources’: Switzerland’s Nestle goes vegan

Swiss food giant Nestle, which has made billions with dairy products, said Monday it will host start-ups that want to develop vegetarian alternatives.

'Unlimited resources': Switzerland's Nestle goes vegan
Photo: SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP

Nestle could thus find itself at the forefront of a sector that has strong growth potential, an analyst commented.

It plans to open its research and development (R&D) centre in Konolfingen, Switzerland to “start-ups, students and scientists” a statement said.

In addition to testing sustainable dairy products, the group plans to encourage work on plant-based dairy alternatives, it added.

Chief executive Mark Schneider was quoted as saying that “innovation in milk products and plant-based dairy alternatives is core to Nestle's portfolio strategy.”

The group unveiled a vegetable-based milk that had already been developed with the process, and technical director Stefan Palzer told AFP it planned to focus on 100-200 such projects a year.

Jon Cox, an analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux, noted that while Nestle had missed some consumer trends in the past, it has now “taken something of a lead in the plant-based alternative market for food”.

And “given its pretty much unlimited resources, Nestle is going to come out one of the winners in the space,” Cox forecast in an e-mail.

Nestle said that “internal, external and mixed teams” would work at the R&D centre over six-month periods.

Nestle would provide “expertise and key equipment such as small to medium-scale production equipment to facilitate the rapid upscaling of products for a test launch in a retail environment,” it added.

The Swiss food giant has long been known for its dairy products, but faced a boycott in the 1970s for allegedly discouraging mothers in developing countries from breastfeeding even though it was cheaper and more nutritious than powdered formula.

On Monday, the group's statement also underscored that the research initiative was part of its commitment to help fight global warming.

“As a company, we have set ambitious climate goals. This is part of our promise to develop products that are good for you and good for the planet,” it said.

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