On Thursday, Nestlé reaffirmed its guidance for 2024, despite a below-expectation performance in the first three months of the year.
The Swiss food giant continues to forecast organic sales growth of around 4% this year, accompanied by a "moderate" increase in its recurring operating margin.
However, organic growth in the first quarter was only 1.4%, compared with the analyst consensus of +2.8%.
Mark Schneider, the Group's Chief Executive Officer, said that after a slow start to the year, Nestlé expected a strong rebound in RIG in the second quarter.
Real internal growth, which measures the evolution of sales volumes, was negative by 2% in the first quarter, but this was offset by a favorable price effect of 3.4%.
In a press release, Nestlé explains that its growth was negatively impacted by North America, mainly in the frozen food category, where the group says it lost market share.
Overall, first-quarter sales fell by 5.9% to CHF 22.1 billion.
Following this publication, Nestlé shares fell by more than 4% on Thursday morning, posting the biggest drop on the Zurich Stock Exchange's SMI index and one of the worst performances on the pan-European STOXX 600 index.
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Nestlé S.A. is the world's leading agri-food group. Net sales break down by category of products as follows:
- powdered and liquid beverages (26.7%): soluble coffees (Nescafé and Starbucks brands), coffee in capsules (Nespresso), chocolate drinks (Nesquik, Milo, etc.), tea drinks (Nestea), etc.;
- pet food (20.3%): brands such as Purina, Friskies, Felix, etc.;
- pharmaceutical, nutrition and well-being products (16.4%): nutritional supplements (Resource, Boost, Nutren, Optifast, Peptamen brands, etc.), infant and maternal nutrition products (NAN, illuma, Cerelac, Nido, Gerber), ketogenic beverages (BrainXpert), (Nesquick, Fitness, Cheerios, Lion, etc.), etc.;
- ready meals and seasoning products (12.5%): frozen and chilled dishes (Lean Cuisine, Hot Pockets and Stouffer's brands), soups (Maggi), etc.;
- dairy products and ice cream (11.8%): powdered milk, sweetened condensed milk, yoghurt and cream desserts, ice cream (Nido, Nesvita, Carnation, La Laitière, Coffee Mate, Nestlé Ice Cream, Dreyers, Häagen-Dazs, Extrême brands, etc.);
- chocolates, sweets and biscuits (8.7%): Kit Kat, Smarties, Cailler, Terrafertil, etc. brands;
- bottled waters (3.6%): Nestlé Pure Life, Vittel, Perrier, S. Pellegrino, etc. brands.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Switzerland (1.2%), France (3.8%), the United Kingdom (3.8%), Germany (2.4%), Europe (12.8%), the United States and Canada (35%), China (5.9%), Asia and Oceania (21.4%) and Latin America (13.7%).
NESTLÉ S.A. 
