Nestle has today raised its sales guidancey, saying it now expected full-year organic growth of 6%-7% after strong coffee sales and price hikes pushed organic sales 6.5% higher in the third quarter.
Like its peers, the world's biggest food group is facing pressure on margins from rising input costs.
But Nestle kept its outlook for a stable margin this year as price increases of 2.1% in the third quarter helped mitigate input cost inflation.
"The company knocked it out of the park for the third quarter," Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Jon Cox said, adding the quarterly pricing component was the strongest since the first half of 2015.
"Most companies with strong brands will be able to pass on prices and I think the market still does not get that," he said.
The maker of KitKat chocolate bars and plant-based burgers has guided for a 4% increase in input costs this year and said last month that cost inflation would likely be even higher in 2022.
Global supply chains are under strain due to factors such as a resurgence of Covid-19 cases in Asia and staff shortages in the US.
Peer Danone warned earlier this week of growing inflationary pressures next year, while Procter & Gamble said it would raise prices in the US to counter higher costs.
Nestle's organic sales - which strip out acquisitions, divestitures and currency swings - rose 7.6% in the first nine months, the group said in a statement, beating a forecast for a 6.6% increase in a company-compiled consensus.
Strong coffee sales were a driver, with Starbucks-branded products posting 15.5% growth and Nespresso portioned coffee also up 11%.
Out-of-home consumption of food and drinks - severely hit during the pandemic - recovered further, Nestle said.
The Swiss company had previously raised its full-year guidance to 5%-6% in July. It still expects an underlying trading operating profit margin at about 17.5% this year and a "continued moderate margin improvement" in the mid term.
Anglo-Dutch rival Unilever is due to give a trading update tomorrow.
