News

Nestlé grows in ”challenging environment”

19 Feb 2016

Nestlé has announced full year organic growth of 4.2% and a trading operating profit margin of 15.1%, up 10 basis points in constant currencies. Real internal growth was 2.2%. Sales were CHF 88.8 billion.

Nestlé grows in ”challenging environment”

Nestlé has announced full year organic growth of 4.2% and a trading operating profit margin of 15.1%, up 10 basis points in constant currencies. Real internal growth was 2.2%. Sales were CHF 88.8 billion, with a foreign exchange impact of -7.4%.

“In 2015 we delivered profitable growth at the higher end of the industry in what is still a challenging environment,” said Paul Bulcke, Nestlé CEO. “This profitable growth was on the back of consistent performances in previous years. Our organic growth of 4.2% was supported by increased momentum in real internal growth combined with continued margin improvement. Additionally, we grew or maintained market share in the majority of our categories and markets.”

“At the same time we continued to invest for the future with increased support behind our brands and further development of our new platforms in nutrition and health as well as E-commerce. We kept up the focus on portfolio management, turning around our frozen food business in the United States, disposing of non-core businesses and forging a new partnership to create a leading player in ice cream.”

Our free cash flow generation was again at the top end of the food industry at 11.2% of sales, as a result of our focus on margins with discipline in capital expenditure and working capital. Consequently we propose to increase the dividend as we have for the last twenty years.

We anticipate that our trading environment in 2016 will be similar to previous years with even softer pricing. As such we expect to deliver organic growth in line with 2015, with improvements in margins and underlying earnings per share in constant currencies, and capital efficiency.”