Nestle's half-year sales worse than forecast

Zurich

NESTLE reported slightly worse-than-expected half-year sales on Thursday, hurt by a recall of its Maggi noodles in India.

The world's largest packaged-food company, with brands such as Nescafe, KitKat and Perrier, reported sales fell 0.3 per cent to 42.84 billion Swiss francs (S$61.2 billion) in the half year to June versus analysts' expectation for a dip of 0.1 per cent to 42.95 billion francs, according to a Reuters poll. Net profit fell 2.5 per cent to 4.52 billion francs, lagging analysts' average estimate for a 2.3 per cent rise to 4.74 billion francs.