Three-month sales 2025: Delivering broad-based growth
[Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR]
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Three-month sales 2025: Delivering broad-based growth, executing on strategy
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) | ||||||||
| 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 | ||||||||
| 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 |
*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
Operational and strategic progress
2025 guidance unchanged
10:30 CEST Investor call - audio webcast
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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) | ||||||||
| 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 | ||||||||
| 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 |
*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.
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.
Zone Asia, Oceania and Africa
In Zone AOA, growth was broad-based and led by pricing. By category, growth was strongest in confectionery, where we achieved positive RIG and market share gains while taking pricing actions. Growth was also notable in strategic focus areas of culinary and emerging markets PetCare. Most regions delivered positive organic growth, with the strongest contributions from Central & West Africa, the Philippines and India. In China, growth in the quarter was positively impacted by sales phasing with distributor inventory increases in some categories, in a challenging, deflationary environment where consumer demand remains flat.
Zone Europe
Growth in Zone Europe was broad-based across markets and categories, in an ongoing fragile consumer environment. We delivered pricing-led growth in confectionery and coffee and RIG-led growth in PetCare. Customer negotiations to implement pricing actions were navigated with limited disruption, in a continued competitive environment. Market share trends are improving across most country-category combinations.
Nestlé Health Science
Organic growth slowed in Nestlé Health Science, with mixed performance across the business. In VMS (Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements), we are executing well in our premium brands, with continued double-digit growth. But overall VMS growth was held back by our discontinuation of some private label business and by weaker performance in Nature’s Bounty, where consumer uptake has been slower than expected following resolution of last year’s supply issues. In Active Nutrition, an acceleration in Orgain was partially offset by weaker performance in Vital Proteins in a more competitive environment. In Medical Nutrition, we grew strongly in adult medical care products, but saw softness in Zenpep after changes to the reimbursement model in the US. To address the mixed performance across Nestlé Health Science, we are prioritizing investment behind our strong premium brands and focusing on strengthening innovation and improving consistency of execution.
Nespresso
In Nespresso, we delivered good growth, with positive RIG, while we also began to increase pricing. North America delivered double-digit growth and further market share gains, and in Europe, the rate of market share losses slowed. Performance in the quarter benefited from some pull forward of demand ahead of price increases, which took effect towards the end of the quarter.
- Reported sales increased by 6.1% to CHF 1.6 billion, including a -0.1% impact from foreign currency and a 0.4% benefit from net acquisitions.
- Market share in North America continued to increase, while we slowed the share losses in Europe.
- By geography, sales in North America grew at a double-digit rate, while Europe posted positive growth.
- By system, growth was driven by the Vertuo system, with strong sales momentum across all geographies. Sales for out-of-home channels grew at a high single-digit rate, backed by the Momento system.
Nestlé Waters & Premium Beverages
In Nestlé Waters & Premium Beverages, the new organizational structure as a standalone globally managed business took effect on 1 January 2025. We moved swiftly to drive alignment and simplification, and delivered improved growth and good strategic progress. Growth was broad-based across markets, and was mainly driven by Maison Perrier and Sanpellegrino . We are progressing with the strategic evaluation of the business, including exploring partnership opportunities.
- Organic growth was 3.6%, with 1.6% RIG and 2.0% pricing.
- Reported sales increased by 3.9% to CHF 0.8 billion, including a positive impact from foreign exchange of 0.2%.
- Market share remains under pressure in a number of markets but with an improving trajectory.
- By geography, Southern Europe and AOA posted mid single-digit growth, while the Americas and Northern Europe delivered low single-digit growth.
- Growth was strong in premium beverages, supported by the roll-out of new products under the Maison Perrier and Sanpellegrino beverages platforms.
- Within waters, we saw good growth from S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, with weaker performance at Perrier due to the continued impact of supply constraints.
3. Category performance
| Total Group | Powdered & liquid beverages | Water | Milk products & ice cream | Nutrition & Health Science | Prepared dishes & cooking aids | Confectionery | PetCare | |
| Sales 3M-2025 (CHF m) | 4 704 | |||||||
| Sales 3M-2024 (CHF m)* | 22 092 | 5 847 | 701 | 2 605 | 3 680 | 2 626 | 2 043 | 4 590 |
| Real internal growth (RIG) | 0.7% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.7% | 0.2% | 0.3% | - 1.1% | 2.5% |
| Pricing | 2.1% | 4.7% | 2.5% | 0.1% | 0.2% | - 0.4% | 10.1% | - 0.9% |
| Organic growth | 2.8% | 5.2% | 2.9% | 0.8% | 0.4% | - 0.1% | 8.9% | 1.6% |
* The new management organization as of January 1, 2025 had no impact on the above table.
Powdered and liquid beverages was the largest category growth contributor, with 5.2% organic growth. This was pricing-led, as we took pricing actions to address input cost inflation in coffee, with double-digit increases in some markets.
Confectionery organic growth of 8.9% was pricing-driven and led by KitKat, supported by continued growth in chocobakery.
PetCare delivered 1.6% organic growth, reflecting a slowdown in category growth compared to early 2024. We continue to focus on driving category growth, and we are gaining share in many markets, with good momentum for science-based premium brands Purina ProPlan, Purina ONE and Felix.
Water organic growth was 2.9%, with good growth from S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, and weaker performance from Perrier due to the continued impact of supply constraints.
Milk products and Ice cream posted 0.8% growth, with improved sales momentum for ambient dairy offset by weakness in coffee creamers.
Nutrition and Health Science delivered positive organic growth. Within this, Nestlé Health Science delivered mid single-digit growth. Infant Nutrition posted negative growth as continued momentum for NAN was more than offset by softer sales in Gerber and Nido.
Prepared dishes and cooking aids reported close to flat growth, as solid growth in ambient culinary products, particularly for Maggi, was more than offset by a decline in frozen food in North America.
Other developments
Organization
After moving rapidly in 2024 to strengthen alignment and focus within the organization, we have been advancing the organizational changes with further simplifications to support effective execution. With a continued focus on eliminating duplication and accelerating innovation, we have begun to take steps to harmonize organizational structures in Zone Europe and enhance our capabilities in R&D.
Acquisition of minority interests and JVs
During the first quarter, we increased our ownership in two companies as follow-ons from earlier acquisitions. In China, we acquired all the outstanding minority interests of confectionery company Hsu Fu Chi, and in Nestlé Health Science we further increased our majority stake in Orgain, a leader in plant-based nutrition, where we had an option as part of the original acquisition structure. In South Korea, from 1 April 2025 we have taken control of our Purina business from the existing JV structure and integrated it into Nestlé South Korea.
