Following the news that Nestle beat Q3 expectations with 4.9% growth;

Ryan Whittaker, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analyticscompany, offers his view:

“GlobalData’s recent consumer survey (21 September), found that over half ofglobal consumers consider themselves to be extremely or quite concerned abouttheir health, while only 15% consider themselves not concerned.* Therefore,that one of Nestle’s strongest growth drivers was health products isn’t asurprise. The importance of health during the pandemic has resulted in a spikein health-seeking behaviors and thus an increase in health-positionedproducts.

“As consumers have been often limited to their homes or working from home, in-the-home health-positioned food and drink have remained strong, reflected inthat Nestle has seen a 26.4% fall in out-of-home and on-the-go productconsumption. Improvements here may have to wait until consumers begincommuting to work again, rather than working from home.

“The largest contributor to Nestle’s growth was Purina PetCare and its premiumbrands Purina Pro Plan, Purina ONE and Felix. A consequence of increasedworking from home has been an uptick in pet ownership. GlobalData’s surveyfound that 23% of consumers have adopted a pet during the lockdown period,and 18%* of consumers said that they were buying more products for their petsthan before the pandemic. There are many reasons to get a pet, but theincreased time available for many consumers, the desire to be more physicallyactive, combined increased loneliness from social distancing has led many toadopt pets. This has resulted in a petcare boom that will continue to the endof the pandemic. While some consumers may give up their pets following thepandemic, this category’s increases are likely to persist if consumerscontinue to work from home.”

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