By Alexander Marrow and Oliver Hirt<\/p>\n
Nestl\u00e9 said on Thursday it was in talks to sell its remaining in-house ice cream business as part of new CEO Philipp Navratil\u2019s drive to streamline the sprawling Swiss consumer food giant.<\/p>\n
Nestl\u00e9 had already handed the reins of its European and US ice cream units to Haagen-Dazs owner Froneri, a joint venture it established with European buyout firm PAI Partners in 2016.<\/p>\n
It is now in advanced talks to sell ice cream businesses with around Sf1bn ($1.3bn) in annual sales in Canada, Chile, Peru, Malaysia and Thailand to Froneri, including brands KitKat ice cream and Coffee Crisp.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are times when we decide that focusing means exiting businesses,\u201d Navratil said, adding that the ice cream business is \u201cstrong, but small, and it\u2019s a distraction for us\u201d.<\/p>\n
The announcement follows Unilever\u2019s spinoff of rival Magnum Ice Cream last year.<\/p>\n
Nestl\u00e9 said it has no plans to exit the Froneri joint venture, valued at some \u20ac15bn in October, including debt, and in which the Swiss group owns a 50% stake.<\/p>\n
The maker of Maggi stock cubes and Nescaf\u00e9 coffee plans to focus on its coffee, pet care, nutrition and food and snacks units. It reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter sales growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe company is giving thought to the right things,\u201d said Kai Lehmann, senior research analyst at Nestl\u00e9 investor Flossbach von Storch.<\/p>\n
Navratil, who announced plans to cut 16,000 jobs in October, has been pushing to raise volume growth while battling the negative impacts from US import tariffs and foreign exchange, as well as consumers with less purchasing power.<\/p>\n
Nestl\u00e9\u2019s strategic review of underperforming vitamin and supplement brands has concluded, and it is engaging potential buyers. It also expects to deconsolidate its waters business from 2027.<\/p>\n
Analysts have suggested that US frozen foods could be another division for the chop, but Navratil said that remained part of the portfolio as a profitable, cash-generative asset.<\/p>\n
Navratil\u2019s efforts to overhaul the packaged goods producer since taking over in September have been overshadowed by the biggest infant formula recall in Nestl\u00e9\u2019s recent history.<\/p>\n
The CEO said the company had acted swiftly and transparently to earn the trust of regulators and consumers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere might be some impact from the recall, but then I think there is not a long-term reputational issue that we\u2019re facing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nestl\u00e9 sees 2026 full-year organic sales growth in the range of 3-4%. It forecasts that its annual underlying trading operating profit margin will rise from 16.1% in 2025 and expects real internal growth (RIG) \u2014 or sales volume growth \u2014 to come in above last year\u2019s 0.8%.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s shares were up 2.8% by 1.12pm (GMT).<\/p>\n
Net debt fell to 51.4bn francs at end-December from 60-billion six months earlier, thanks in part to strong cash flow generation. The board will propose a 5 centime increase in the dividend to 3.10 francs per share.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrong free cash flow and slashed net debt establish a solid foundation for a reset,\u201d said Vontobel analysts.<\/p>\n
Organic sales, which exclude the impact of currency movements and acquisitions, rose 4% in the final three months of the year, above expectations for 3.4% growth.<\/p>\n
That was led by price increases of 2.8%, roughly in line with analyst expectations, and RIG of 1.3%, outperforming expectations for a 0.9% increase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Alexander Marrow and Oliver Hirt Nestl\u00e9 said on Thursday it was in talks to sell its remaining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[126],"tags":[9620,9426,9411,9610,199,9618,9612,9617,9623,9409,9408,9615,9622,9611,9421,9424,9614,9406,9621,9407,9609,9613,9429,2782,9417,9616,9619],"class_list":["post-13208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nestle","tag-coffee-crisp-brand","tag-froneri-joint-venture","tag-ice-cream-business-sale","tag-kitkat-ice-cream","tag-nestle","tag-nestle-brand-focus","tag-nestle-business-streamlining","tag-nestle-ceo-strategy","tag-nestle-coffee-and-snacks","tag-nestle-debt-reduction","tag-nestle-dividend-increase","tag-nestle-financial-performance","tag-nestle-free-cash-flow","tag-nestle-ice-cream-brands","tag-nestle-ice-cream-sale","tag-nestle-infant-formula-recall","tag-nestle-market-strategy","tag-nestle-organic-sales-growth","tag-nestle-portfolio-shake-up","tag-nestle-product-focus","tag-nestle-profit-margin","tag-nestle-strategic-divestments","tag-nestle-strategic-review","tag-philipp-navratil","tag-philipp-navratil-ceo","tag-philipp-navratil-nestle","tag-unilever-magnum-spinoff"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}