Nestlé says coffee brands helped drive stronger-than-expected sales growth

Nestlé’s mixed quarter had one clear bright spot: coffee. Nescafé, Nespresso and licensed Starbucks products helped lift the Swiss giant to 3.5% organic sales growth for the three months ended in March 2026, ahead of the 2.4% analysts had expected.

CEO Philipp Navratil said the first-quarter performance showed Nestlé’s RIG-led growth strategy was delivering, with strength in Coffee and Food & Snacks. The company also said growth in emerging markets stood out, while Europe and the United States were robust despite tougher customer and consumer environments. In other words, coffee was not just holding steady. It was helping carry the rest of the business.

That matters because the quarter was also shaped by a costly recall in Nestlé’s nutrition business. The company said the problem began at the end of November 2025, when routine checks after new equipment was installed on a production line at its factory in the Netherlands detected very low levels of cereulide in product samples. Nestlé said it immediately halted production and dismantled the line for inspection. Bloomberg later described the recall as the largest in Nestlé’s history, affecting infant formula brands in more than 60 countries.

Against that backdrop, coffee looked like the category with the most dependable pull. On the earnings call, management said coffee was “the star,” with recovering volumes and positive mix. That combination points to a business that still has both consumer loyalty and enough brand power to defend its position when packaged-food shoppers are more selective about where they spend.

For coffee watchers, the signal is bigger than one quarter’s beat. Nestlé’s results suggest that branded instant, pod and licensed coffee still matter inside a sprawling food portfolio because they can do more than simply survive a weak stretch. They can offset damage elsewhere, support premium positioning and keep sales moving across regions as different parts of the world spend at different speeds. In a quarter defined by recall fallout in nutrition, coffee was the part of Nestlé that kept the company looking resilient.