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Nestlé and Roche report on-track sales growth

The Local
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Nestlé and Roche report on-track sales growth
Photo: AFP

The world’s biggest food company, Vevey-based Nestlé, reported on Thursday sales of 68.4 billion francs ($75.1 billion) for the first nine months of the year, up four percent from the same period in 2012.

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The company confirmed its outlook for the full year predicting “organic growth” of around five percent but said revenues so far this year have been impacted negatively by foreign exchange.

“Our real internal growth has regained momentum and is broad-based across categories, price points and geographies,” Paul Bulcke, Nestlé CEO said in a statement.

“Most notably, Europe continues to grow and Asia and Africa have picked up speed.”

Bulcke added that he expected “our continued growth momentum to enable us to deliver around five percent organic growth for the full year together with an improvement in margins and underlying earnings per share in constant currencies.”

Meanwhile, in other Swiss company news, Basel-based pharma giant Roche said on Thursday its sales for the first nine months of the year grew six percent to 34.9 billion francs from the same period a year earlier.

Roche said the third quarter was particularly strong with an eight percent increase in revenues and that it expects to meet targets for the full year.

CEO Severin Schwan said demand for the company's products remained strong in both of its pharmaceuticals and diagnostics divisions.

"I am very encouraged by the uptake of our new cancer medicines, Perjeta and Kadcyla, which significantly improve the survival rates of patients with a very aggressive form of breast cancer," Schwan said in a statement.

Roche said its earnings per share for 2013 are forecast to grow ahead of sales and the company expects a further increase in its dividend.

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