Sales & Earnings In Brief
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Nestle credits R&D with nutritional growth: Innovations in the infant nutrition category, such as cereals with probiotics and formula to help alleviate colic, fuel the strong first-half performance of Nestle Nutrition. The food giant's nutrition business increased sales organically 6.2 percent in the January-June period to CHF 5.43 billion ($4.98 billion under Aug. 11 exchange rates). Nestle said infant nutrition had particularly strong double-digit growth in emerging markets such as Russia, China, the Middle East and Africa. Nestle's health care nutrition is also gaining momentum, and the Swiss firm made a recent move to expand that business with its acquisition of Vitaflo (1"The Tan Sheet" Aug. 9, 2010, In Brief). Nestle's pharma unit, including its now-divested stake in Alcon, increased sales to $4.12 billion in the half. The company's overall sales for the first six months of 2010 totaled $52.49 billion, representing 6.1 organic growth. Nestle did not break out financial results for the second quarter