Nestle Sees India as Key Growth Driver Despite Fading GST
New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI) Swiss food and beverages major Nestle SA said India continues to be a strong growth driver for the company, with the market expected to post double-digit growth even as a tailwind from a change in sales tax structure begins to taper off in the third quarter.
The Asia, Oceania and Africa (AOA) zone had a strong performance in the second quarter of 2026, in which India's performance was "very, very strong", its Chief Executive Officer Philipp Navratil said on Thursday in an earnings call.
He attributed the performance to the company's execution capabilities in these markets.
Navratil said the strength of Nestle's performance in markets such as India stemmed from having "the right product at the right place, where consumers shop, where consumers consume," combined with the strength of the company's brand portfolio.
He said the growth reflected "our execution muscle in those markets," adding that this extended beyond the AOA zone to emerging markets more broadly. The company, he said, was "really proud about the growth" recorded across these regions.
In AOA, Q2/2026 growth was broad-based across all categories and most markets, the company said in its earning statement. It had an organic growth of 6.5 per cent.
On the outlook for the India market, Navratil said the boost from the recent tax reforms will laps from the third quarter.
"There is a tailwind in terms of the change in sales tax, and that will lap now in Q3," he said, referring to the GST reforms, in which the government had lowered the taxes by putting food products in a lower duty bracket.
Despite this, he maintained that momentum would remain strong.
"We still expect double-digit growth coming from India. So India is a growth driver for us, definitely," Navratil said.
He added that year-on-year comparisons would get tougher going forward, but reiterated that emerging markets and the AOA zone, taken together, would "continue to be a place of growth" for the company.
On Wednesday, its local subsidiary Nestle India had reported a 48.26 per cent on-year rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 958.68 crore in the June quarter, supported by strong double-digit volume growth.
Its revenue from Sale of Products was up 25.4 per cent at Rs 6,363.27 crore in the June quarter of FY27.
