Nestlé CEO Says Lower Coffee, Cocoa Costs Will Boost Margins

(Bloomberg) — Nestlé SA Chief Executive Officer Philipp Navratil said lower coffee and cocoa prices should help improve margins this year as the foodmaker works to reignite growth.

“Net-net commodity prices or input costs are favorable in 2026 compared with 2025,” Navratil said at a consumer conference in Paris on Tuesday. “That’s why you should expect margins to be higher and improving through the year as those better costs in those two commodities are coming through.”

Coffee and cocoa inflation drove up Nestlé’s cost base in the past year, prompting the maker of Nescafé coffee and KitKat candy bars to raise prices across many markets. While those commodities have become less costly, the company is still monitoring the potential impact from geopolitical tensions, Navratil said.

“You have obviously some inflationary pressure from other places like the Middle East crisis that we will still have to see,” he said, adding that the company is hedged through the first half of the year.

Nestlé plans an additional 600 million Swiss francs ($763 million) in advertising and promotional spending this year, reinvesting savings generated through cost efficiencies into its “growth platforms,” the CEO said. “The goal is to accelerate those businesses and drive high single-digit growth.”

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