Nestle's profits fall by 39% in 2015

Nestle's net profits fell by 39%

Swiss food giant Nestle saw net profits fall by 39% last year to 9.1bn Swiss francs (£6.4bn).

The company said the decline was primarily due to the sale in 2014 of part of its stake in the cosmetics business L'Oreal.

It also suffered as a result of the strength of the Swiss Franc.

Annual sales growth for the group, whose brands include the chocolate bar KitKat and Nescafe instant coffee, came in below forecast at 4.2%.

Chief executive Paul Bulcke said "we delivered profitable growth at the higher end of the industry in what is still a challenging environment."

The company says it expects the trading environment in 2016 to be similar to previous years "with even softer pricing. As such we expect to deliver organic growth in line with 2015."

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"It's a difficult environment. Profit margins are under pressure as companies are not able to raise prices, while productivity is edging lower," said Koen De Leus, senior economist at KBC in Brussels.

In its statement Nestle said growth was broad-based across all regions and categories.

In Asia, though, performance was "seriously impacted" by the withdrawal and destruction of Maggi noodles in India following a ban imposed by the country's food safety regulator.

The noodles began to return to the market in November.