By Joshua Kirby

Nestle on Thursday slightly raised its outlook for sales growth this year, after first-half revenue grew on pricing effects.

The Swiss consumer-goods giant booked sales of 46.29 billion Swiss francs ($53.78 billion) in the first six months of the year, 8.7% higher organically than in the same period last year. This was just shy of analysts' expectations of CHF46.68 billion, according to a consensus compiled by the company.

Higher pricing was behind the sales growth, which slowed only slightly in the second quarter from the first, as the company raised prices to offset higher costs.

The group made a trading operating profit of CHF7.90 billion, 2.9% higher on year, with a margin that rose to 17.1%.

Looking ahead, the maker of Kit-Kat chocolate bars and Nespresso coffee said it now expects organic sales growth of 7%-8% this year compared with a previous range of 6%-8%. Nestle still expects an underlying trading operating margin of 17%-17.5%. The company expects volume growth to add to the top line as well as pricing in the second half, Chief Executive Mark Schneider said.

"At-home consumption post-Covid has now normalized, removing a growth drag on some of our categories," Schneider said, adding that out-of-home channels continue to grow apace.

Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 27, 2023 01:52 ET (05:52 GMT)

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