LONDON (Brand Republic) 鈥 Sales at Nestle are racing ahead of its rival Unilever as the company aims to push its annual growth rate to double that of the global food industry鈥檚.
Nestle, which owns the Evian and Kit-Kat brands, has set itself a growth target of 4% each year, even though the sector as a whole is only growing at a rate of 2.5%. It is planning to plough resources into the emerging nutrition market and well-being product sectors and withdraw from slow growth areas such as agribusiness.
Its move mirrors the strategy of both Procter & Gamble and Unilever, which are culling their brands to focus on fewer, global, added-value brands to maximise sales and profits.
Nestle chief executive Peter Brabeck said sales for the last nine months had risen by almost 10% to $33.2bn, and added that this was 鈥渘ot just a blip鈥.
He said the company鈥檚 new structuring programme, dubbed the Globe Project, would be the biggest reorganisation programme in its history. He added it would not affect the local autonomy of brand managers but would improve efficiency in areas such as logistics, although he refused to speculate on the cost savings.
In spite of its outrunning of Unilever, Nestle is lagging behind French rival Danone, which reported organic growth of 7.5% for the first nine months of 2000.