Nestle said today that first half sales increased 2.4%, ahead of forecasts, and despite higher prices. Net profit for the first half was up 32.4% on the previous year.
Nestle raised prices by 1.8% in the first six months of this year, which together with the cost savings helped it to fend off high raw materials costs.
The company said, however, that trading conditions will continue to be challenging in a number of markets, and commodity costs and currencies are likely to remain volatile.
However despite this difficult environment, the group said it was still on track to deliver their savings target of 1.2 billion Swiss francs for the year, which is necessary to offset the input cost pressures
Net profit rose to 3.68 billion Swiss francs from 2.78 billion a year ago and sales came in at 43.47 billion Swiss francs.
