Nestlé reported slightly better-than-expected annual sales growth, driven by price hikes, though the world's largest packaged food company warned of a margin decline in 2025.
Nestlé forecast full-year organic sales growth and upheld the targets it outlined during its capital markets day last November.
The maker of Maggi stock cubes and Nescafe coffee forecast its underlying trading operating profit (UTOP) margin for 2025 at 16% or more, down from an UTOP margin of 17.2% last year.
'Operating Profit Margin'
"From 2025, we expect our actions to drive an improvement in organic sales growth, with a lower underlying trading operating profit margin in the short term as we invest for growth," CEO Laurent Freixe said.
Organic sales, which exclude the impact of currency movements and acquisitions, rose 2.2% in the full year ended 31 December.
Analysts, on average, expected organic sales growth of 2.1%.
The company's sales decreased by 1.8% to CHF 91.35 billion francs (€96.1 billion), and net profit fell 2.9% to CHF 10.88 billion (€11.4 billion).
