World's Largest Food Company Earnings Up 8.9%

Nestle SA (IW 1000/21) on Thursday reported net profit for the January-June period was 5.1 billion Swiss francs (US $5.2 billion.)

Operating profit rose 6.9% to 6.6 billion Swiss francs while sales were up 7.5% at 44.1 billion euros.

Nestle said sales increased 12.9% in emerging markets compared with 2.6% growth in developed countries.

"Our growth in the first half and our current operational margin ... allow us to reconfirm our forecast for the entire year," chairman Paul Bulcke said.

Nestle expects full-year growth of between 5%-6% but the food giant also warned that "the challenging business environment will continue in the second half, especially in the developed markets."

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012