Nestle has today reported slightly better-than-expected annual sales growth, driven by price hikes, though the world's largest packaged food company warned of a margin decline in 2025.
Nestle forecast full-year organic sales growth and upheld the targets it outlined during its capital markets day last November.
The maker of Maggi stock cubes and Nescafe coffee forecast its underlying trading operating profit (UTOP) margin for 2025 at 16% or more, down from an UTOP margin of 17.2% last year.
"From 2025, we expect our actions to drive an improvement in organic sales growth, with a lower underlying trading operating profit margin in the short term as we invest for growth," CEO Laurent Freixe said.
Organic sales, which exclude the impact of currency movements and acquisitions, rose 2.2% in the full year ended December 31.
Analysts, on average, expected organic sales growth of 2.1%.
The company's sales decreased by 1.8% to 91.35 billion francs ($100.27 billion), and net profit fell 2.9% to 10.88 billion francs.
