Nestle report 32% rise in first half profits

17/08/05 Nestle’s net profit grew by 32.4% in the first half of this year helped by strong brands and price increases. During the first half of 2005, the Nestlé Group's consolidated sales grew to CHF 43 474 million, an increase of 2.4% over January-June 2004, despite the negative impacts of currencies of -1.8% and divestitures, net of acquisitions, of -1%. The key growth driver was organic growth of 5.2%. This was within the Nestlé long-term trend target of 5-6% and comprised 3.4% real internal growth (RIG) and 1.8% pricing.

Nestle said that the trading environment has continued to be challenging throughout the first half of the year. Raw and packaging material costs have remained volatile, with some reaching recent highs, and consumer demand has remained fragile in some European countries.

Zone Europe achieved an improvement in organic growth to 1.5%, compared to the corresponding period in 2004. That improvement was the result of a better performance in Western Europe and, in particular, from the European PetCare business, Great Britain, the Iberian region and a number of the smaller markets. France, Germany as well as Italy remained difficult, even though there were signs of improvement. Organic growth in Eastern Europe amounted to 6.2%. The EBITA margin for the Zone decreased from 11.3% to 10.8%, as the Zone continued to focus on defending or improving its market share positions.

Zone Americas had a very good start to the year, with organic growth of 7.2%. There were excellent performances across North America, especially in the Nestlé Prepared Foods Company, as well as in the recently acquired businesses such as Nestlé Purina PetCare Company and Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Holdings. Canada and the two key Latin American markets, Brazil and Mexico, delivered strong real internal growth. The EBITA margin for the Zone increased from 12.8% to 13.6%, with the USA particularly strong.

Zone Asia, Oceania and Africa achieved organic growth of 6.0% in the first half of the year. Growth in Greater China was held back by a large-scale product exchange due to a local regulatory compliance issue, which reduced consumer demand across all Nestlé-branded product categories in that market. The situation has been addressed and a recovery plan implemented to rebuild consumer confidence and demand during the second half. Japan, Africa and the Philippines, which started the year slowly, are accelerating. There were good performances from a number of Asian markets, as well as the Middle East. The EBITA margin for the Zone fell from 17.8% to 15.9%, reflecting the costs of the product exchange in China, a tough competitive environment for soluble coffee in Japan and higher raw material costs, especially milk.

Nestlé Waters achieved organic growth of 5.9%. The North American business continued its recent trend of very strong growth, whilst the European business recovered from the poor growth levels in 2004. There was good growth also in the emerging market businesses. The EBITA margin for Nestlé Waters decreased from 9.4% to 8.2%, as a result of a substantial increase in the price of PET and a very competitive global trading environment.

In "Other activities", there were excellent performances from Alcon and Nespresso in particular. Organic growth was 10.2%, whilst the EBITA margin increased 410 basis points to 26.8%.

Among the product categories Beverages grew organically 6.4%, Milk products, Nutrition and Ice cream 5.2% and PetCare 5.3%. Pharmaceutical products delivered 9.2% organic growth. Prepared dishes and cooking aids was slightly slower at 3.8%, whilst the Chocolate, confectionery and biscuits product group did well in general, but is still suffering in Russia. Both the Prepared dishes and cooking aids and Chocolate, confectionery and biscuits product groups improved their margins by over 100 basis points, whilst Pharmaceutical products increased by 190 basis points. PetCare achieved a 30 basis point improvement, whilst the margins of the Beverages and Milk products, Nutrition and Ice cream product groups decreased by over 100 basis points, reflecting higher input costs in particular PET and milk, as well as the product exchange in China.

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nestlé S.A said in a statement, "Nestlé's results for the first half of 2005 are in line with our forecasts and underscore the Nestlé Model of combining a good level of organic growth with a sustainable improvement in operating performance”. He said that the results demonstrate the strength and depth of Nestlé's brand portfolio around the world, as well as the effectiveness of its long-term strategy. “The first half results allow us to be confident in achieving our organic growth target in 2005 as well as improving our margins in constant currencies", Brabeck said.