Purina was Nestlé’s largest growth contributor in the first half of 2022

Global sales accounted for CHF 45.6 billion ($-€ 46.7B) from January to June 2022, against CHF 41.8 billion ($-€ 42.8B) in the same period for 2021.

Premium pet food brands Purina Pro Plan, Purina ONE and Fancy Feast contributed the most to this performance, but the company did not disclose numbers for its pet division.

Purina PetCare posted “strong” double-digit growth in North America across all channels – including e-commerce – and brands.

The European market also saw market share gains in pet food in the first 6 months of 2022, especially premium brands Gourmet, Purina ONE and Purina Pro Plan.

“Growth was broad-based across channels, particularly in e-commerce and pet specialty stores. Gourmet Revelations, the recently launched super-premium cat food, saw strong demand,” the company noted.  

Success in Latin America

Latin American markets also saw an increase in Nestlé’s pet food business, especially after the recovery of offline channels and the “sustained momentum” for retail sales. The organic growth of this market for all the businesses was +13.6%, the highest of all regions.

Purina PetCare performed especially well in Mexico and Chile and sales of the pet business grew at a double-digit rate, fueled by Dog Chow, Cat Chow and Purina Pro Plan.

Nestlé also said that it has expanded its product range across different markets in the area, although further details were not disclosed.

Growth outlook

The multinational highlighted that until June 2022 pricing increased by 6.5% across all its products to reflect “significant” and “unprecedented” cost inflation, while it expects organic sales growth between 7% and 8% for this year.

“So far, the evidence we’ve seen about consumers trading down is very limited to certain categories and geographies,” Nestlé’s CEO Mark Schneider commented to journalists.

However, he suggested this may happen in the coming months and that the company will closely monitor the developments in the second half of the year.