Nestlé today hailed last year as a milestone for performance as the company reported full-year profits up 15.8 per cent, marking a 12th year of growth.

The world’s largest food company, the maker of Nescafe coffee and KitKat chocolate bars, said that a mix of new premium products and price increases drove net profit for the year ended December 31 to SwFr10.6 billion. Sales rose 9.2 per cent to SwFr107.6 billion.

Chairman and chief executive Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, said: “This milestone performance was achieved in a difficult external environment and, for the 12th year in a row.

“Nestlé has ventured far beyond the traditional food industry: Our success is now driven more by our capacity to innovate and use our R&D pipeline to launch new, added-value products and services, than by raw material prices or the economic climate.”

Nestlé’s food and beverages business was the main driver of growth, with sales up 7.1 per cent to SwFr100.3 billion, of which 3.1 per cent was due to price increases.

The company said that timely price actions and cost reductions as well as a change in strategy allowed its food and drink business to more than offset higher raw material and energy costs.

In recent years Nestlé has focused on luxury and premium products and said that its Movenpick of Switzerland ice cream, Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee, and its partnership with luxury Belgian chocolatier Pierre Marcolini, had all done well over the year.

Nestlé said that such new products along with a strong performance from its nutrition and health lines gave it confidence of similar growth in the future.

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