Nestlé has delivered a slight fall in profit and sales, as its CEO warned it had experienced a “challenging macroeconomic context and soft consumer environment”.

In the full year ending 31 December 2024, the food and drink manufacturer’s net profit dropped 2.9% to £9.598bn (CHF 10.884bn), from £9.885bn (CHF 11.209bn). Meanwhile, sales also inched down by 1.8% to £80.566bn (CHF 91.354bn) from £82.007bn (CHF 92.998bn) in the previous year.

Growth was achieved in Nestlé’s coffee category which experienced mid-single-digit growth, supported by its three leading brands, Nescafé, Nespresso and Starbucks.

Elsewhere, confectionery also proved a large growth contributor, with sales rising by a mid single-digit rate, led by KitKat and key local brands.

New CEO Laurent Freixe remained positive, pointing to the company’s transformation plan and its aims to “accelerate performance”.

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Freixe said: “This means delivering superior product taste and quality with unbeatable value, scaling our winning platforms and brands, accelerating the rollout of our innovation ‘big bets’ and addressing underperformers.

“We are creating the fuel for these growth investments through our new CHF 2.5 billion three-year cost savings program. We are making good progress and have already secured over CHF 300 million of these savings for 2025.”

The Nestlé chief executive’s comments follows his appointment to the role last September. He has since made rafts of cost cutting measures at the company, including announcing the slashing of £2.2bn of expenditure by 2027, while boosting marketing and advertising. The company also plans to separate its water and premium drinks businesses.

Speaking about the group’s latest full year updates, Freixe added: “From 2025, we expect our actions to drive an improvement in organic sales growth, with a lower underlying trading operating profit margin in the short term as we invest for growth.

“While there is macroeconomic uncertainty, we have lots of opportunities ahead of us, and we have the strategy, the resources and the people and team to deliver.”