Dairy good for Nestlé

SWITZERLAND – Dairy has helped Nestle to deliver encouraging figures for the first half of 2004 – despite poor ice cream performance.

For January to June, sales for milk products, nutrition and ice cream were 7.6 billion – up 4% on the same period last year. The company said that poor weather in Europe meant that ice cream sales were disappointingly low. That was offset by good performance in long shelflife dairy products.

Commenting on the news, Nestle chief executive Peter Brabeck-Letmathe said: “Nestle’s results for the first half of 2004 are resilient in the face of higher raw material prices, poor weather conditions and continued challenging trading conditions in western Europe.”

A statement said that raw material costs for milk, coffee, sugar, energy and packaging materials had affected performance. However, for the full year Brabeck-Letmathe predicted growth for the group of between five and 6%.