Category: 3. Business

Thailand’s beverage alcohol landscape is undergoing a period of change as imports of beer and whisky contract, with consumers showing a growing thirst for wine and cocktails based on Tequila, rum, vodka and gin.

According to IWSR data, total beverage alcohol (TBA) volumes in the country rose by +2% in 2024, but were flat over the 2019-24 period – but this apparently lacklustre performance conceals the opportunities in a country characterised by a robust tourist industry and a vibrant on-trade.

Beer and whisky are traditionally the dominant categories in Thailand. In the premium-and-above price bands beer accounted for over 80% of on-trade volumes in 2024, and blended Scotch was the most lucrative segment, contributing a third of the value generated by spirits sales in the country’s bars, according to IWSR’s on-trade value data.

But this picture is changing, with wine and white spirits (the latter boosted by a dynamic cocktail culture) becoming increasingly significant in recent years. At the same time, beer imports have fallen back as they struggle to compete with well-known local brands, and blended whisky is showing signs of falling out of fashion.

“Thailand’s beer category is remaining resilient as it is popular with locals and tourists alike, and home-grown brands are increasingly elevating their branding efforts,” reports Jalene Teng, IWSR Senior Market Analyst. “Wine is a growing category, with the market maturing and consumers gravitating towards it – and white spirits such as Tequila, rum, vodka and gin are fast becoming crowd favourites thanks to their huge popularity in cocktail bars.”

Wine: tax breaks and health attributes

Tax reductions introduced by the Thai government during 2024 have helped to boost wine sales further, while also opening the market to a broader selection of products and origins.

Imported still wine volumes rose by +3% in 2024, according to IWSR data, and are predicted to continue to expand to 2029, at a CAGR of +3%. Sparkling wine imports also grew by +3% last year, although future growth is forecast to moderate, with a 2024-29 CAGR of +1%.

The FCA’s latest proposals on non-financial misconduct (NFM) will add an additional factor to corporate transactions in the financial services sector. With new rules extending the regulatory spotlight to a wider range of firms, acquirers should consider NFM risks and policies as part of their due diligence processes. This development is set to influence risk assessment and post-completion integration, making NFM compliance a concern for buyers and sellers alike.

On 2 July 2025, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Consultation Paper CP 25/18, outlining new rule changes and proposals to tackle NFM in the financial services industry. NFM refers to the type of serious misconduct described in the new rules and covers behaviour such as bullying, violence and sexual harassment which do not involve financial wrongdoing but can breach regulatory standards and seriously undermine workplace culture. The publication follows concerns being raised by the regulator about NFM behaviours going unchallenged in certain pockets of the industry.

Previously, only banks were subject to wider scope rules. The new final rules extend the scope of the Code of Conduct (COCON) sourcebook and align the rules more closely between banks and non-banks, so that COCON now applies the conduct rules to staff of all FSMA firms holding a Part 4A permission (eg insurers, consumer credit lenders, asset managers etc) when they are performing tasks for their regulated employer, irrespective of whether or not those tasks are part of the firm’s regulated activities (SMCR financial activities).

The revised rules have also been adjusted to align more closely with employment law and in particular the definition of ‘harassment’ as set out in the Equality Act 2010.

The rule changes will come into force on 1 September 2026 and will not apply retrospectively.

Proposals for consultation include:

• COCON – The FCA’s proposed amendment to the rules on NFM in COCON. In addition, the FCA will consider providing additional guidance in COCON on how NFM can be a breach of the COCON rules with examples of scenarios illustrating the boundary between work and private life, when conduct is outside of a firm’s SMCR financial activities and when NFM may be out of scope in a non-bank.
• Fit and Proper test for Employees and Senior Personnel (FIT) – The FCA proposes including explanatory material on how various types of conduct, including NFM, are relevant to fitness and propriety and form part of the FIT section of the FCA Handbook, including the relevancy of similarly serious behaviour in a person’s private or personal life.

What does this mean?

• Risk and exposure – The extension of NFM rules means that regulatory risk in relation to workplace conduct will be relevant to a much wider range of transactions. Failure to comply and subsequently address any issues of non-compliance relating to NFM could expose a regulated firm and, as a consequence, a buyer to possible regulatory scrutiny and reputational damage.
• Due diligence – Buyers considering the acquisition of a financial services business should now assess whether the target has effective policies and procedures in place to address NFM, including checking staff awareness and training. If such policies are absent post-September 2026, it would be advisable to recommend their introduction post-completion and to align the target’s compliance, HR and governance (eg board) with the buyer’s on NFM going forward to ensure regulatory compliance.
• Integration and governance – Firms should ensure that NFM compliance is integrated into any target’s policies, systems, board reporting and senior management attestations. This will help demonstrate ongoing commitment to regulatory standards and mitigate future risks of both employment claims and regulatory scrutiny, as well as ensuring that a safe workplace culture is being promoted.
• Communication to staff – Although the COCON rule change does not come into effect until next year, firms are reminded of their duty under section 64B of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to notify staff about the conduct rules and take all reasonable steps to make sure they understand how they apply to them. Firms are expected to keep these requirements under review and will need to update internal conduct documents and training materials to properly reflect the new rules and guidance.

What’s next?

The consultation closed on 10 September 2025. The FCA is currently reviewing feedback and is expected to set out its final regulatory approach before the end of the year.

• The resumption of the early termination program has already resulted in a notable increase in the number of early termination requests granted. Based on historical data (FY2011 to FY2020), roughly 79% of early termination requests were granted each year. With the suspension of early termination granting in February 2021, the percentage of transactions granted early termination essentially dropped to 0%. Although the precise percentage of transactions granted early termination may vary, it is reasonable to expect a return to the pre-FY2021 standard. Note, however, that a grant of early termination does not necessarily result in a substantially shorter HSR waiting period.⁶
• A renewed willingness on the part of the Agencies to consider remedies is providing merging parties with more avenues to resolve antitrust issues and, ultimately, consummate transactions. This is already playing out in practice, with several transactions in recent months addressing concerns raised by the Agencies via consent decrees and settlements.

Up next: forthcoming client alerts

The latest edition of our merger control trends report will delve further into developments in U.S. merger control and impacts on merging parties, as well as provide global trends in merger control enforcement.

Footnotes

1. See, e.g., Jonathan Kanter, Assistant Att’y Gen., Antitrust Div., U.S. Dep’t of Just., Remarks to the New York State Bar Association Antitrust Section (Jan. 24, 2022) “[W]hen the division concludes that a merger is likely to lessen competition, in most situations we should seek a simple injunction to block the transaction. It is the surest way to preserve competition.”

2. Of the total number (2,031) of notified transactions, 1,973 were subject to HSR review. Notified transactions that are not subject to HSR review include: (i) incomplete notifications, (ii) exempt transactions (e.g., which are reviewable by another federal agency but are still subject to filing with the FTC and DOJ), (iii) non-reportable transactions, and (iv) withdrawn transactions.

3. On February 10, 2025, new HSR rules and merger notification forms came into effect. The new rules and forms were unanimously approved by all five FTC Commissioners, with a concurrence from the DOJ, on October 10, 2024. See our prior client alert on this topic. 

4. See supra note 3.

5. The FTC has not yet released September 2025 preliminary HSR Transactions data.

6. Current reporting suggests that, in some cases, the Agencies are granting early termination shortly before, or on the day of, the end of the 30-day waiting period (see Flavia Fortes and Wesley Brown, Early terminations of US merger period being granted at the last minute, MLEX (Sep. 24, 2025)).

LIVINGSTON, N.J. – October 16, 2025 – CoreWeave, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRWV), The Essential Cloud for AI, today announced CoreWeave AI Object Storage, an industry-leading fully managed object storage service built from the ground up specifically for AI workloads. Powered by CoreWeave’s Local Object Transport Accelerator (LOTA) technology, CoreWeave AI Object Storage makes a single dataset instantly accessible, anywhere in the world, without any egress charges or request/transaction fees restricting how or where it’s used. 

AI performance hinges on data mobility – timing and access to the right data can make or break innovation. High-performance AI training relies on large datasets located near GPU compute clusters. Conventional cloud storage is not engineered for that level of throughput or flexibility, leaving developers constrained by latency, complexity, and cost. 

“As the essential cloud for AI, every decision at every layer is focused on optimizing for efficiency and performance,” said Peter Salanki, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at CoreWeave. “Now, we are rethinking storage from the ground up. We’ve built a system where data is no longer confined by geography or cloud boundaries, giving developers the freedom to innovate without friction or hidden costs. This is a truly game-changing shift in how AI workloads operate.” 

‍Unlike traditional object storage, which is constrained to one portion of your IT infrastructure, CoreWeave AI Object Storage performance scales as AI workloads grow and maintains superior throughput across distributed GPU nodes from any region, on any cloud, or on-premises. Private interconnects, direct cloud peering, and 400 GBps-capable ports ensure the data integrity of trillions of objects for workloads across the globe. This multi-cloud networking backbone ensures developers everywhere get the same high-throughput GPU performance without dealing with data sprawl or resource-heavy data replication.

CoreWeave is also introducing three automatic, usage-based pricing tiers that provide more than 75 percent lower storage costs for our existing customers’ typical AI workloads. With no egress, request, or tiering fees, the new model gives customers greater flexibility and visibility, aligning costs directly with usage while constantly maintaining CoreWeave’s unmatched performance and simplicity. This makes CoreWeave AI Object Storage one of the most cost-efficient, developer-friendly storage options in the industry.

“At Replicate, our mission is to make it simple for developers to run and share machine learning models at scale. That requires storage that is both fast and flexible across environments,” said Morgan Fainberg, Principal Engineer at Replicate. “With CoreWeave’s cross-cloud capabilities in CoreWeave AI Object Storage, we can rely on a single dataset to support models no matter where they’re deployed. This eliminates replication overhead, removes egress costs, and ensures our users always have high-performance access to the data they need to innovate.”

‍Today’s announcement marks the latest step in CoreWeave’s ongoing expansion of its software ecosystem. Last week, CoreWeave announced ServerlessRL, the first publicly available, fully managed reinforcement learning capability. CoreWeave fosters a diverse and open AI ecosystem, with its technology team consistently setting new standards for performance, demonstrated by the company’s industry-leading MLPerf benchmark for AI workloads and Platinum rating in the SemiAnalysis ClusterMAX™ system.

CoreWeave is committed to redefining what it means to power AI. The company’s cloud platform unites the essential tools from high-performance computing to the critical software layer builders rely on to develop, test, and deploy AI at scale. CoreWeave continues to expand its capabilities through organic innovation, by supporting founders with capital and compute through CoreWeave Ventures, and with strategic acquisitions including OpenPipe, advancing reinforcement learning; Weights & Biases, powering model iteration, experiment tracking, and inference; and the pending acquisition of Monolith AI, which applies machine learning to complex physics and engineering challenges. 

Additional Supporting Quotes:

“With cross-region and cross-cloud acceleration, CoreWeave is delivering what developers need most: consistent, high-throughput access to a single dataset without replication,” said Holger Mueller, Vice President and Principal Analyst at  Constellation Research. “Leveraging technologies like LOTA caching and InfiniBand networking, CoreWeave AI Object Storage ensures GPUs remain efficiently utilized across distributed environments, a critical capability for scaling next-generation AI workloads.”

“While benchmarking LMCache with Cohere to store large volumes of KV-cache across a distributed cluster, we were truly impressed by the performance of LOTA, the technology behind CoreWeave AI Object Storage. Its speed and scalability are key to minimizing time-to-first-token (TTFT) and maximizing LLM throughput—regardless of context size,” said Juchen Jiang, CEO, Tensormesh
‍

– Three new AI agents, built with Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications, automate enterprise tasks

– Additional AI Agents for HR and Supply Chain built on IBM watsonx Orchestrate under development by IBM

Oct 16, 2025

ARMONK, N.Y., Oct. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new AI agents now available on the Oracle Fusion Applications AI Agent Marketplace. The three new agents are designed to help Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications customers achieve new levels of operational efficiency. In addition, IBM plans to release complementary agents for Oracle customers built with IBM watsonx Orchestrate for HR and supply chain to help clients across industries transform businesses processes. 

IBM Agents Built Directly in Oracle Fusion Applications

The new agents from IBM Consulting are built with Oracle AI Agent Studio and designed to help organizations automate processes and common workflows within Oracle Fusion Applications. The three new Oracle-validated agents, available on the Oracle AI Agent Marketplace, are:

• Intercompany Agent – Automates the review of intercompany agreements
• Smart Sales Order Entry Agent – Helps streamline the sales-order creation process by generating relevant data needed in the order-to-cash process
• Requisition to Contract Agent – Addresses the complex workflow of converting purchase requisitions to contract purchase orders

“As AI agents rapidly transform enterprise applications, organizations are seeking new ways to drive productivity, agility, and innovation at scale,” said Kaushal Kurapati, GVP of Product Management for Fusion AI, Oracle. “The new IBM AI agents in the Oracle AI Agent Marketplace, seamlessly built with Oracle AI Agent Studio, will help customers to address their unique business needs and drive growth with speed and confidence.”

“Oracle and IBM are combining our collective enterprise AI and business transformation expertise to help clients embrace agentic AI as a driver of innovation and competitive advantage,” said Neil Dhar, Global Managing Partner, IBM Consulting. “These new agents will bring the power of AI directly to our joint clients for the greatest potential impact on their business.”

IBM Plans to Add New watsonx Orchestrate Agents

IBM also intends to expand the ecosystem around Oracle Fusion Applications with the release of new supply chain and HR agents soon, joining an expanding portfolio of agents announced earlier this year.

They are built on IBM watsonx Orchestrate, an enterprise-grade AI solution for developing, deploying, and governing AI agents. Watsonx Orchestrate, running on a foundation of Red Hat OpenShift AI, provides a multi-agent approach designed to work with the expansive AI agents offerings embedded within the Oracle AI Agent Studio and Oracle AI Agent Marketplace. It also serves as a multi-agent supervisor to orchestrate agents across both Oracle and non-Oracle applications and data sources. 

Additionally, Oracle intends to make the IBM Granite 4.0 family of AI models available soon through its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Data Science via AI Quick Actions.

For more information about the new agents for Oracle Fusion Applications and an update on the IBM and Oracle partnership visit here.

To read a new joint study launched at Oracle AI World by the IBM Institute for Business Value and Oracle, “The strategic ascent: How autonomous AI transforms enterprise business operations,” visit here.

Statements regarding IBM’s and Oracle’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

About IBM

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain a competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

About Oracle’s Partner Program

Oracle’s partner program helps Oracle and its partners drive joint customer success and business momentum. The newly enhanced program provides partners with choice and flexibility, offering several program pathways and a robust range of foundational benefits spanning training and enablement, go-to-market collaboration, technical accelerators, and success support. To learn more, visit https://www.oracle.com/partner/.

Trademark

Oracle, Java, MySQL and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

Contact:

Joel Rushing

IBM Communications

joel.rushing@ibm.com

SOURCE IBM

Lloyd’s Register (LR) has published Navigating Nuclear Energy in Maritime, a new guidance document providing the first roadmap for the safe and responsible use of nuclear technology in commercial shipping and offshore industries. 

As the maritime sector accelerates its transition towards sustainable energy solutions, nuclear power has re-emerged as a viable solution to achieve net-zero ambitions.  

The guidance, developed in partnership with Global Nuclear Security Partners (GNSP) and marine insurer NorthStandard, sets out the practical steps project teams must take – outlining regulatory, technical, operational and financial requirements for integrating nuclear technology, such as small modular reactors (SMRs), into maritime assets. 

With no international regulatory framework yet in place, the document discusses the roles of key bodies, including the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), highlighting the importance of harmonising maritime and nuclear standards.  

Topics covered include safety classification, environmental impact assessments, structural integrity, and the development of a robust nuclear safety case. Security measures are also addressed, with emphasis on physical and cyber protection systems, as well as insider threat mitigation. 
 
Operational and financial aspects are thoroughly explored, including personnel qualifications, emergency response planning, and quality assurance throughout the project lifecycle. The document also examines insurance and reinsurance challenges, advocating for a predictable liability framework to support commercial viability.  

Mark Tipping, LR’s Global Power to X Director, said: “Nuclear energy has the potential to transform maritime, providing a scalable and zero-carbon energy source that can accelerate the industry’s energy transition. However, its adoption requires clarity, collaboration and trust across regulators, operators, insurers and wider society. This guidance offers a comprehensive starting point for stakeholders to navigate the risks and opportunities ahead.” 

Nick Tomkinson, Senior Partner, Global Nuclear Security Partners, said: “Maritime nuclear will only succeed when safety, security and safeguards are considered together from the start. This guidance document helps first movers align maritime and nuclear frameworks, apply goal-based approaches where prescriptive rules are absent, and build the confidence required by regulators, insurers and the public. GNSP is proud to contribute to this important step for the sector.” 

Helen Barden, Director – External Affairs at NorthStandard, added: “NorthStandard are proud to have been invited to contribute our expertise to the Navigating Nuclear Energy in Maritime guidance document. We collaborated with Lloyd’s Register to explore the insurance and reinsurance considerations for nuclear energy – particularly the interlink between classification and insurance, current P&I limitations around pooling nuclear risks and the importance of liability frameworks. 

“We welcome the growing recognition that nuclear could play a meaningful role in the decarbonisation of shipping and we are proactively supporting the maritime industry when it comes to the insurance and regulatory challenges ahead.”  

LR’s guidance builds on its industry-leading Fuel for Thought: Nuclear research programme and aims to fill a critical knowledge gap. It brings together decades of classification, safety and compliance expertise with specialist nuclear insight to provide an evidence-based framework for project teams at every stage of development. 

The full guidance, Navigating Nuclear Energy in Maritime, is available to download via the link below:

Navigating nuclear energy in maritime

Paris, France, October 16, 2025

Atos Group, a global leader of AI-powered digital transformation, announces today it has once again been awarded the coveted EcoVadis Platinum Medal for its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance, with an improved score of 84 out of 100.

 

This recognition places Atos in the top 1% of companies assessed by EcoVadis in its industry (Computer programming, consultancy and related activities).

Since its founding in 2007, EcoVadis has grown into a globally trusted provider of business sustainability ratings with a network of more than 150,000 rated companies. EcoVadis evaluates across four categories: Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement. Atos maintained strong performance across all categories, with the most significant improvement in the Ethics domain, where EcoVadis highlighted that Atos “demonstrates an advanced management system on ethics issues”.

 

This continued recognition reflects Atos’ unwavering commitment to responsible business practices and its strategic integration of sustainability across operations. The Platinum Medal, introduced by EcoVadis in 2020 to distinguish the highest-performing companies, replaced the Gold Medal as the top-tier recognition, which Atos had previously earned for eight years running before transitioning to Platinum status.

 

The EcoVadis assessment is a key benchmark in Atos’ broader ESG strategy, complementing other global ratings such as the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). As Atos prepares for the next phase of sustainability reporting under Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), this recognition strengthens its position as a trusted partner in the digital sector.

 

“Atos Group is regularly recognized by its customers and analysts for the excellence of its technologies and services. Being equally recognized by a such a trusted partner as EcoVadis for our values, engagement and achievements in environmental and social responsibility is a pride shared by all our employees. We also thank our customers for their confidence and engagement with us on this path” said Marie de Scorbiac, Head of investors relations and corporate social responsibility, Atos Group.

 

For more details on Atos Group’s sustainability commitments, please refer to its 2024 Universal Registration Document.

 

Download the PDF document

###

 

About Atos Group

Atos Group is a global leader in digital transformation with c. 70,000 employees and annual revenue of c. € 10 billion, operating in 67 countries under two brands — Atos for services and Eviden for products. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high-performance computing, Atos Group is committed to a secure and decarbonized future and provides tailored AI-powered, end-to-end solutions for all industries. Atos Group is the brand under which Atos SE (Societas Europaea), listed on Euronext Paris, operates.

The purpose of Atos Group is to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.

 

Contacts

Media Relations: laurent.massicot@atos.net

Other tandem perovskite players have been hitting headlines with efficiencies of more than 30%, but these are often lab-scale tests for cells not yet on the market. According to Japanese expert Tsutomu Miyasaka, whose team was the first to use perovskites for solar power applications in 2009, records achieved for lab-made cells generally represent “champion” cells that perform better than larger panels manufactured in factories, where quality can be inconsistent over large areas.

Berry highlights that the data a company claims in commercial spec sheets to buyers is more representative of performance. “If they’re able to close the gap between this and their record, that is meaningful,” he says.

Oxford PV says it is now manufacturing its cells at a factory in Germany and recently sent its first pilot of around 100kW of tandem solar panels (enough to power around 14 average US households) to a commercial-scale solar farm in the US. These solar models have an efficiency of 24.5%, Oxford PV says, and their performance will be closely monitored. “We want our panels tested in multiple different parts of the world so we can build a dataset of performance,” says Ward.

The company is not alone in pushing ahead with scale-up. In June 2025, Swift Solar, a spinout from US universities Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford, announced a pilot with communications-infrastructure firm American Tower Corporation to deploy its perovskite tandem panels across some of its 42,000 telecommunications towers. Boston-based CubicPV and NREL have achieved 24% efficiency in tandem cells. And Caelux recently sent out its first commercial shipment of its Active Glass perovskite technology.

Firms in China, the world’s largest solar market by far, are also moving fast. In April 2025, Changzhou-based solar giant Trinasolar reportedly announced a new world-record conversion efficiency of 31.1% on a tandem solar cell, and Oxford PV recently signed a deal to allow the firm to license its technology in China’s domestic market. Other firms have announced high conversion efficiencies of their own, including Shanghai-based Longi which says it has achieved a 33.9% efficiency for a single cell.

Nestlé has said it will cut 16,000 jobs over the next two years as the owner of KitKat and Nescafé attempts to reduce costs and increase sales.

The Swiss-headquartered multinational said the cuts would include 12,000 white-collar professionals and 4,000 in its manufacturing and supply chain, close to 6% of Nestlé’s global workforce.

“The world is changing and Nestlé needs to change faster,” said Philipp Navratil, the new chief executive. “This will include making hard but necessary decisions to reduce headcount over the next two years. We will do this with respect and transparency.”

Navratil, who replaced Laurent Freixe last month after he was fired for failing to disclose a romantic relationship with a subordinate, announced an acceleration of his predecessor’s cost-saving plan to free up cash.

The company, which owns a suite of consumer goods brands including Häagen-Dazs ice-cream, Nespresso coffee capsules and Purina cat food, will seek to make savings of SFr3bn (£2.8bn) by 2027, up from a previous target of SFr2.5bn.

Freixe’s firing, which was followed two weeks later by the resignation of the chair, Paul Bulcke, destabilised Nestlé, already under pressure to bolster growth and reduce debt.

“We will be bolder in investing at scale and driving innovation to deliver accelerated growth and value creation,” Navratil said. “We are fostering a culture that embraces a performance mindset, that does not accept losing market share, and where winning is rewarded.”

The cuts were announced as the company reported a 1.9% year-on-year fall in sales to SFr65.9bn in the first nine months of the year. It said this was primarily due to negative foreign exchange impacts of 5.4% and that, on an organic basis, sales grew at 3.3%.

“We have been stepping up investment to achieve this, and the results are starting to come through,” Navratil said. “Now we must do more and move faster to accelerate our growth momentum.

“As Nestlé moves forward, we will be rigorous in our approach to resource allocation, prioritising the opportunities and businesses with the highest potential returns.”

However, the company said its higher sales were fuelled by inflationary pressures leading to price rises, with “double-digit percentage increases in some markets”. Sales growth was led by coffee and confectionery, where Nestlé has had to factor in higher coffee and cocoa costs.

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Geographically, all regions achieved organic growth, with emerging markets expanding at 5.2% and developed markets at 2.1%.

Chris Beckett, a consumer staples analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said: “The new Nestlé chief executive has used today’s results to indicate that despite his history as a career Nestlé employee, it will not be business as usual.

“[He is] happy [to] take drastic action to arrest Nestlé’s slide. Management have grand ambitions to being Nestlé back to where it has historically been, but for now the company is a work in progress.”