FDBusiness.com

Nestlé has reported a 0.6% decline in net sales to SFr91.6 billion (€85 billion) for 2014, impacted by adverse currency exchange factors, and a 45% jump in net profit to SFr14.5 billion, reflecting the sale of part of its stake in L’Oréal.

Nestlé’s organic growth was 4.5%, comprising 2.3% real internal growth and 2.2% pricing. Group trading operating profit was SFr14.0 billion, representing a margin of 15.3%, up 10 basis points, and up 30 basis points in constant currencies. This growth was broadly based across the group’s business regions: 5.4% in the Americas, 1.9% in Europe and 5.7% in Asia, Oceania and Africa. Business in developed markets grew 1.1%, achieving sales of SFr51.4 billion, while emerging markets business grew 8.9%, with sales of SFr40.2 billion.

Real internal growth was 2.3% in the Americas, 2.4% in Europe and 2.4% in Asia, Oceania and Africa.

Paul Bulcke, chief executive of Nestlé, comments: “These are strong results, building on the good growth of past years and delivered in a soft trading environment. They demonstrate the intrinsic strengths of Nestlé: the commitment of our people, our global footprint, the strength of our portfolio and the quality of our innovation. While delivering in the short term, we remain focused on our business long term, strengthening the foundations of future growth. We expect 2015 to be similar to 2014 and we aim to achieve organic growth of around 5% with improvements in margins, underlying earnings per share in constant currencies and capital efficiency.”

Paul Bulcke, chief executive of Nestlé.

During 2014, Nestlé created Nestlé Skin Health, complementing Nestlé Health Science, to further expand its existing food and beverage business in line with the group’s strategic ambition to be the world’s recognised leading Nutrition, Health and Wellness company.

Nestlé Business Excellence was also established at executive board level, aggregating business support services. This is designed to allow Nestlé to better leverage its scale, decrease structural costs, increase the quality of support services and free up resources to deliver growth and to allow its markets to focus on generating demand.

Nestlé’s Zone Europe achieved sales of SFr15.2 billion in 2014 with 1.5% organic growth, 2.2% real internal growth and a 15.3% trading operating profit margin, up 30 basis points. Growth was driven by innovation and premiumisation as the European trading environment continued to be volatile and intensely competitive, with deflationary pressure increasing during the year and consumer confidence very fragile, reducing price flexibility.

Good performances in France, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands, and a recovery in Spain and Portugal supported the growth in Western Europe. The Great Britain region, Germany, Italy and Greece were more challenged. There were strong performances from petcare and Nescafé Dolce Gusto across Western Europe along with good growth from innovations in several categories. Highlights included Nescafé Gold and Azzerapremium soluble coffee, Fresh Up and Buitoni Fiesta in frozen pizza, Maggi snacking noodles in ambient culinary and the launch of premium chocolate tablets Les Recettes de L’Atelier in France.

In Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Ukraine drove the growth in a deteriorating economic environment. Petcare, Nescafé Dolce Gusto, soluble coffee, particularly Gold Blend, and confectionery with KitKat were the highlights.