Health food boosts Nestle sales

Infant nutrition and health food boosted Nestle first quarter sales

Nestle, the maker of KitKat and Perrier water, reported a strong rise in sales for the first three months of the year.

Sales were up 6.4% to 24.25bn Swiss francs ($20bn; £10bn) at the Swiss food giant, driven by demand in emerging markets and its nutrition unit.

The firm said it expected to reach its growth target of 5% or 6% this year.

High prices for coffee and cocoa have seen Nestle increasingly focus on the division that produces diet and baby foods to build growth.

Wellbeing

The company's chairman and chief executive Peter Brabeck-Letmathe said the group's pricing power would enable it to meet its organic growth targets despite higher commodity costs.

Innovative baby and general wellbeing food products helped Nestle's nutrition arm achieve its target of 10% growth for the quarter for the first time, excluding contributions from the recently acquired US diet firm Jenny Craig.

The group said that the recent purchases of the American baby food firm Gerber and the medical foods unit of the Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis demonstrate Nestle's commitment to putting nutrition and healthcare at the centre of its business strategy.