Nestle benefiting from recession

While the world's top food groups battle a slowdown this year, Nestle SA has the credentials to exploit the recession.

In spite of the crisis, Nestle seem to have closed a succesful three-month term this year, and impressed investors by beating forecasts to see 2008 underlying sales grow 8.3 percent and, despite prospects of a tough 2009, it forecast annual sales growth of at least approaching 5 percent. Several experts rank the top-food group ahead of Danone, Cadbury, and Unilever. The underlying reason behind this success-story is the fact that Nesle's most popular products – Nescafé and the KitKat-bar – have not changed their prices in most countries, and people seem to spend more money on chocolate and snacks during crisis-driven times.