Nestle sales fall amid price hikes

Nestle who make KitKat and Cheerios has said their sales have fallen as customers are being put off by high prices amid continued food inflation.

Nestle had to increase their pricing by 8.4% in the first nine months of the year and the price rise helped to drive organic growth of 7.8% in the same period.

The volume of products bought dropped by 0.6% as customers were put off by the price hike.

On Thursday, Nestle chief executive officer Mark Schneider said: “Growth was driven by pricing as we continued to navigate historic inflation levels.”

Nestle said their Purina PetCare business drove growth as Felix, Gourmet and Purina One saw strong performance.

In Nestle coffee business there was strong demand for Nescafe which helped drive “mid single-digit growth.”

Schneider said: “The recovery of our volume and mix is under way.

“We are seeing the benefits of our portfolio optimisation initiatives and increasing marketing investments behind our billionaire brands.

“These steps underpin our confidence that real internal growth – the sum of volume and mix – will turn positive in the second half of the year and again become the main driver of growth going forward.”