Nestlé lowers growth target amid weak consumer demand

Nestlé recorded slower growth than hoped in the first nine months of 2024, making it difficult to achieve previous growth targets for the year. The new CEO Laurent Freixe is therefore cutting expectations for 2024. Nestlé generated total sales of CHF67.1 billion ($77.6 billion) in the first nine months of 2024, the world's largest food company announced on Thursday. This corresponds to organic growth of 2%. Analysts had previously expected an increase of 2.4%. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox Former CEO Mark Schneider had recently emphasized that Nestlé would grow organically by “over 3%” for the year as a whole. But that seems too optimistic. Laurent Freixe, who took over as CEO in August after a long career at the food multinational, has now rejected these false hopes and lowered expectations for the year as a whole. “Consumer demand has weakened in recent months and we expect this environment to remain subdued,” Freixe is quoted as saying in the press ...