Nestle Sales Boosted By Hot Pockets and Frozen Pizza in U.S. — 3rd Update

By Aimee Look

Nestle booked a rise in sales for the third quarter amid a revival of its snacking businesses in the Americas.

The Swiss packaged-food group, which counts KitKat and Nescafe among its brands, reported third-quarter sales of 22.76 billion Swiss francs, equivalent to $27.61 billion. Sales grew 4.0% organically on year, above company-compiled analyst expectations of 3.4%.

The company has moved to shed its water, vitamins and ice-cream units and undertaken mass job cuts during Chief Executive Philipp Navratil's first year at the helm, in a bid to revive profits. Beyond these changes, Navratil's inaugural year has also been marred by an infant formula recall and Moscow seizing its operations in Russia.

But analysts have said now Nestle can focus on accelerating growth and honing in on its stated four key units: coffee, pet food, snacking and nutrition. Still, tough consumer sentiment, structural changes in the industry due to GLP-1 drugs and higher energy costs due to the war in Iran remain persistent headwinds.

In its Americas operations, Nestle said it had mid-single digit organic growth in both its food and snacking, and Petcare businesses. Amid the rise of weight-loss drugs and trendy whole foods diets in the U.S., Nestle's frozen foods business remained resilient during the quarter.

Nestle's food results improved on better performance from frozen brands in the U.S., like Stouffer's, DiGiorno and Hot Pockets, it said. The company's GLP-1 specific products, mainly in U.S. frozen foods and nutrition, are growing faster than the market, Navratil said.

"This is obviously an R&D focus for us," the company's CEO said on a call with reporters, referring to GLP-1 specific products in its nutrition and food businesses.

Nestle has previously said it is tweaking recipes to adapt to changing taste buds accompanying GLP-1 weight-loss drugs--which pose both a threat and opportunity to high-calorie snacking foods. The company's marketing boss has said that the company tests packaged foods on consumers.

Growth in the region also got a boost from its confectionery business in the Americas. It owns Toll House baking products in the U.S. and the Garoto chocolate brand in Brazil. Navratil said that the category was growing in volume terms for the region, which supported the organic growth of 5% in its overall food and snacking category.

Real internal growth, a key measure of volume of products sold, rose 2.8%. Volume growth has been a stated priority of Nestle, and analysts have questioned whether it can sustainably keep up 2% RIG.

Nestle said it no longer includes its Russian business in its financial results, after the country's government seized its operations. Nestle's operations in Russia had contributed around 2% of group sales, and the deconsolidation would increase net debt by around 900 million Swiss francs by the end of 2026, the company said.

The reporting change brings "welcome clarity," Vontobel's Jean-Philippe Bertschy said in a note to clients.

Write to Aimee Look at aimee.look@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 22, 2026 06:54 ET (10:54 GMT)