There’s a sweet taste to the performance of Nestle

The group said that Milky Bar sharing bags, which are made in York, have performed very strongly this year which has contributed to the UK success.

Yorkie, which is also made in York, returned to TV advertising this year after a 10-year gap and this boosted sales.

The brand has been supported by the launch of Yorkie Man Sized Buttons sharing bag and York bar multi-packs.

Yorkie saw a 31 per cent increase in value and Milky Bar rose by 11 per cent.

Nestle said that although the economic outlook is more positive, with UK manufacturing growing for the sixth consecutive month in September, it expects the environment it is operating in to stay challenging throughout 2013 and into 2014.

The confectionery division grew thanks to old favourites such as Breakaway, which reported a 22 per cent growth in brand value.

Nestle is gearing up for the Halloween season, which is worth £65m to the confectionery industry and kickstarts the busiest quarter of the year for the division.

The Nescafe brand reported above market growth with strong performances from Azera and Cafe Style.

The company launched Nescafe Gold Blend Barista Style, Nescafe’s biggest launch in 2013.

The new recipe is designed to appeal to consumers who want the coffee-shop experience at home.

Nestle said that its Maggi food brand is gaining market share thanks to the Maggi So Juicy range.

It extended the range with the launch of So Tender, a range of seasoned Papyrus paper, containing all the herbs and spices for chicken with no need to add oil.

Nestle Waters UK reported a strong third quarter, supported by the sustained hot weather of the British summer.

The group said the business is on track to deliver another successive year of double digit growth.

Further abroad, Nestle said weak demand from emerging markets and falling prices in Europe reduced underlying sales growth to 4.4 per cent in the first nine months of the year, down from 6.1 per cent a year ago.

Sales at the world’s biggest food group rose to £46.8bn.

Nestle and peers Danone and Unilever are grappling with sluggish consumer demand in austerity-hit Europe and a marked slowdown in many emerging markets.

Nestle’s sales growth in Asia, Oceania and Africa accelerated slightly to 6.9 per cent from 6.3 per cent in the first half, while growth in Europe rose to 0.9 per cent from 0.6 per cent in the first half.

“We expect our continued growth momentum to enable us to deliver around five per cent organic growth for the full year,” said the group.