Nestlé reports 2.6% organic growth, business restructuring to continue

Nestlé has reported its latest nine-month financial figures, achieving organic growth of 2.6% across the business.

The Swiss food and drinks giant enjoyed particular success in emerging markets (5.1%), with growth in established areas at 0.8%.

It recorded 1.9% organic growth in Europe, Middle East and North Africa, with particularly strong performance in its coffee and petcare divisions.

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Sales for the company as a whole slipped by 0.4% to 65.3bn CHF, however, while ongoing restructuring costs and related expenses are likely to hit Nestlé's upcoming profits.

"Improving our efficiency is a key priority," commented Mark Schneider, Nestlé CEO. "We have identified further opportunities to accelerate our margin improvement, leading to a further increase in restructuring and related expenses in 2017.

"Consequently, we now expect our trading operating profit margin to decrease by 40-60 basis points. The development of our underlying trading operating profit margin is fully in line with our expectations for 2017."