Nestlé had to hike prices on its popular Starbucks-branded coffee pods in the U.S. this year because beans got so much more expensive. That curbed sales, at least temporarily, and contributed to lower-than-expected growth when Nestlé reported second quarter results on Thursday.
Nestlé's shares fell 6%. Its preferred sales-volume metric, real internal growth, came in below the 2% some analysts expected, in part because the figure in North American went negative this year.
Chief Executive Philipp Navratil told analysts that one factor was that pricing effect on the Starbucks products, which also include bagged coffee. He offered reassurance, though. Coffee is a strong habit.
"After a price increase in coffee, you see consumers adjust," Navratil said. Then, "people will go back to their normal use. It's normally after a quarter or so," he said.
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