In the company’s annual report for 2019, Nestlé recorded its fastest organic growth since 2015 and posted its highest net profit in almost a decade.
The world’s largest food manufacturer saw organic growth of 3.5%, supported by worldwide sales of Purina PetCare and the launch of new premium Starbucks products.
The results, as published in its full-year report, comes after Nestlé announced it would be aiming to make 100% of its packaging is recyclable by 2025 by investing £1.59bn into sustainable packaging solutions.
Mark Schneider, Nestlé CEO, commented: “In 2019, we made significant progress in our portfolio transformation. We did what we said we would do and more. We are not done yet. We will respond to rapid changes in the industry and fast-evolving consumer preferences to position our portfolio for higher growth.
“Nestlé will continue to focus on fast innovation. The launch of our premium Starbucks products, for example, has been a great success. We are very pleased with the speed of the product rollout and the positive response by consumers. The company is fully embracing the need for speed, as the rapid expansion of our new plant-based food and beverage offerings has shown. We are getting to market faster with must-have products.”
Market analysis
Simon Harvey, food correspondent at GlobalData, said: “The KitKat maker has been undergoing a rejig since chief executive Mark Schneider came on-board three years ago, selling a host of ill-fitting, lower-margin assets, while at the same time investing in on-trend, high-growth areas such as plant-based foods.
“Judging by the top-line sales figure and net profit for 2019, which were both the best in almost a decade (2010) when Nestlé was in another era and consumer habits were very different, the strategy appears to be paying dividends.
