22 October 2026
If you are covering Nestle or Kerry Group's latest financial results, please find below a comment from Chris Beckett, consumer staples analyst at Quilter Cheviot:
"Nestle is never going to blow the lights out when it comes to volume growth, but its latest quarter is fairly good given the circumstances. The company has suffered from some difficult quarters of late, which the market has punished them for, so seeing the 3.4% volume growth beating expectations should help give the share price a boost in the short term. Management is certainly bringing back credibility to the company and confidence that it can deliver in what is a challenging consumer backdrop.
"Much of the growth has come from the pets and confectionary divisions, and importantly has not come from large price increases. This indicates that consumers like Nestle's product line up and are happy to keep spending on the things they like. Emerging markets continue to outperform, but developed markets also held up well which hasn't been the case of late.
"There are a few oddities to Nestle's business just now with San Pellegrino currently being spun out into a joint venture, while the Russian business has been stripped out of earnings. That said, these things will pass by without too much fuss from the market, and if it continues to deliver like it has today, then its premium to the market should return. The company is looking undervalued given the trends at play.
"There are similar trends being seen at Kerry too, where volume growth has powered revenues as pricing has stayed fairly flat. Once again emerging markets are doing better, showing that large food businesses are all fighting the same battles just now. Kerry, however, is well positioned, and these results show that its strategy helping other companies focus on quality and more nutritious food is paying off. The share price is up 45% since its lows in March, but like Nestle it has turned things around during the year and still looks slightly undervalued. It doesn't have a premium to the food sector just now and is arguably priced against peers that are not comparable, so should it keep delivering like this, it should see that valuation increase."
