BERN: Switzerland’s Nestlé company official said that company’s sales rose 0.5 percent to 20.9 billion francs in 1st quarter 2015, adding that currency exchange rates, especially the strong Swiss franc, trimmed reported sales by 4.5 percent.
The company that markets Nespresso capsules, KitKat bars and Perrier water also confirmed it expected around five percent growth this year. But organic sales the benchmark of Nestle’s performance rose 4.4 percent, higher than the 4.1 percent forecast by analysts polled by the Swiss financial news service AWP.
“Our three-month sales growth was in line with expectations and driven by both real internal growth and pricing,” Nestle chief Paul Bulcke said. Sluggish 2014 sales in Asia, Africa and North America continued into the beginning of this year, a situation Bulcke pledged to rectify.
