Three-month sales 2025: Delivering broad-based growth, executing on strategy

Nestlé S.A.

Wed, Apr 23, 2025, 11:00 PM 17 min read

Laurent Freixe, Nestlé CEO commented: "In an environment of heightened macroeconomic and consumer uncertainty, Nestlé delivered organic sales growth of 2.8%, with RIG of 0.7% and pricing of 2.1%. Growth was broad-based across markets and categories, with improving market share trends across many businesses, particularly our billionaire brands.

We have made further progress in delivering our strategy. Our ‘Fuel for Growth’ cost savings program is on track, providing the resources to help accelerate performance. In the quarter, we invested to strengthen our core business, achieved good consumer traction in the roll-out of our ‘big bet’ innovations such as Nescafé Espresso Concentrate, and saw some encouraging early improvements in our largest underperforming business cells. We are continuing to make changes throughout the organization to increase alignment and focus, with steps to harmonize our structure in Zone Europe and enhance our capabilities in R&D.

Performance in the first quarter was in line with our expectations, and our 2025 guidance remains unchanged. This is based on our assessment of the direct impact of current tariffs and our ability to adapt. The indirect impacts – on consumers and customers, as well as currencies and commodity prices – remain unclear at this stage. Overall, the situation continues to be dynamic, with heightened risks and uncertainty. Our 277,000 committed colleagues are focused on successfully executing our strategy: driving efficiencies and investing for growth to accelerate our categories and improve market share."

Sales performance summary

	Total Group	Zone Americas	Zone AOA	Zone Europe	Nestlé Health Science	Nespresso	Nestlé Waters & Premium Beverages	Other Businesses
Sales 3M-2025 (CHF m)	22 601	8 639	5 539	4 353	1 593	1 595	809	73
Sales 3M-2024 (CHF m)*	22 092	8 639	5 344	4 248	1 511	1 503	779	68
Real internal growth (RIG)	0.7%	0.1%	0.7%	- 0.6%	4.8%	2.6%	1.6%	3.9%
Pricing	2.1%	1.7%	2.4%	3.0%	- 0.7%	3.2%	2.0%	2.5%
Organic growth	2.8%	1.9%	3.1%	2.4%	4.2%	5.7%	3.6%	6.4%
Net M&A	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	- 0.1%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
Foreign exchange	- 0.5%	- 2.0%	0.6%	0.2%	1.1%	- 0.1%	0.2%	0.9%
Reported sales growth	2.3%	0.0%	3.6%	2.5%	5.4%	6.1%	3.9%	7.4%

*2024 figures restated following the combination of Zone North America and Zone Latin America to form Zone Americas and Zone Greater China becoming part of Zone AOA as well as Nestlé Waters & Premium Beverages becoming a Globally Managed Business, as of January 1, 2025.

Financial highlights

Delivering broad-based organic growth in an uncertain environment
Organic sales growth of 2.8%, with real internal growth (RIG) of 0.7% and pricing of 2.1%.
Pricing actions taken to address input cost inflation in coffee and cocoa, with limited customer disruption. Actions targeted with aim to recover input cost increases while maintaining medium-term consumer penetration.
RIG reflected short-term impacts of consumers and customers adjusting to price increases.

Operational and strategic progress

Good progress on strategy to accelerate category growth and improve market share
Investing to strengthen the core, with positive market share momentum for billionaire brands.
Roll-out of innovation ‘big bets’ on track; encouraging consumer response to Nescafé Espresso Concentrate and gourmet pyramid-shaped cat food; recent launches of chocobakery across Latin America and AOA.
Continued active management of 18 key underperforming business cells, with early indications of improvement.

Operational management driving broad growth across categories
Strongest organic growth delivered in confectionery (8.9%) and coffee (5.1%), led by pricing, with double-digit increases in some markets.
PetCare organic growth (1.6%) was RIG-led and reflects some market softness, especially in the US, but with continued market share gains in most markets.
Nestlé Health Science organic growth slowed to 4.2%, reflecting mixed performance.

Further simplification of organization to support effective execution
Advancing organizational change after moving rapidly in 2024 to create alignment and focus.
Continuing to eliminate duplication and accelerate innovation, including steps to harmonize the organization in Zone Europe and enhance our capabilities in R&D.

‘Fuel for Growth’ cost savings program progressing to plan
On track to deliver CHF 0.7 billion incremental cost savings in 2025, to date primarily driven by realization of procurement savings.

2025 guidance unchanged

2025 guidance remains unchanged, based on our assessment of the direct impact of current tariffs and our ability to adapt.
Organic sales growth expected to improve compared to 2024, strengthening over the year as we continue to deliver on our growth plans.
UTOP margin expected to be at or above 16.0% as we invest for growth.
Overall, the situation continues to be dynamic, with heightened risks and uncertainty.

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Media:
Christoph Meier Tel.: +41 21 924 2200
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ir@nestle.com

Sales review

1. Group

Total reported sales increased by 2.3% to CHF 22.6 billion, including impacts of -0.5% from foreign exchange movements and 0.1% from net acquisitions. Organic growth was 2.8%, in a period of fragile consumer confidence. Pricing contribution increased to 2.1% as we took pricing actions to address input cost inflation in coffee and cocoa-related categories. Despite the significant level of the increases in many markets, the actions were implemented with limited customer disruption. RIG was 0.7%, reflecting soft consumer demand and the short-term impact of consumers and customers adjusting to price increases.

By category, confectionery and coffee were the largest organic growth contributors. This growth was pricing-led, with double-digit increases in some markets. Our focus in these two categories is on smart pricing action to fully address input cost increases where possible, while maintaining medium-term consumer penetration. Where larger price changes were implemented, in some cases we saw a pronounced initial impact on RIG, which is easing as consumer behavior and the competitive environment adjust and stabilize. Outside confectionery and coffee, organic growth was more modest, but RIG was positive across all other reported categories.

By geography, all regions contributed to positive organic growth. In developed markets, organic growth was 1.6%, driven by RIG of 1.4% along with positive pricing. In emerging markets, organic growth was 4.5%, driven by pricing of 4.8%, with RIG slightly negative.

By channel, organic growth in retail sales was 2.5%. Organic growth of out-of-home channels was 6.6%. E-commerce sales grew organically by 15.1%, reaching 20.1% of total Group sales.

2. Operating segments

	Total Group	Zone Americas	Zone AOA	Zone Europe	Nestlé Health Science	Nespresso	Nestlé Waters & Premium Beverages	Other Businesses
Sales 3M-2025 (CHF m)	22 601	8 639	5 539	4 353	1 593	1 595	809	73
Sales 3M-2024 (CHF m)*	22 092	8 639	5 344	4 248	1 511	1 503	779	68
Real internal growth (RIG)	0.7%	0.1%	0.7%	- 0.6%	4.8%	2.6%	1.6%	3.9%
Pricing	2.1%	1.7%	2.4%	3.0%	- 0.7%	3.2%	2.0%	2.5%
Organic growth	2.8%	1.9%	3.1%	2.4%	4.2%	5.7%	3.6%	6.4%
Net M&A	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	- 0.1%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
Foreign exchange	- 0.5%	- 2.0%	0.6%	0.2%	1.1%	- 0.1%	0.2%	0.9%
Reported sales growth	2.3%	0.0%	3.6%	2.5%	5.4%	6.1%	3.9%	7.4%

Zone Americas

In a challenging macroeconomic environment with fragile consumer confidence, we delivered a solid performance in Zone Americas. In North America, organic growth was broadly flat and we returned to positive RIG, with market share gains across a number of categories and reducing share losses in frozen foods and coffee creamers. In Latin America, growth was pricing-led, driven by coffee and confectionery. Across the Zone, we continue to focus on executing our strategy to drive further improvement in performance, despite the uncertain external context.