NESTLE Group, the parent company of Nestl Rowntree in York, today reported that it was heading for a record sales year.

Half-year figures show that worldwide sales of all its products from chocolate to coffee increased to £17.68 billion compared with £16.65 billion between the comparable January and June last year.

Those results, translated from latest Swiss franc values, generated net profits for the six months of £1.352 billion - 12.7 per cent higher than the same half-year period in 2000.

Peter Brabeck, chief executive of Nestl, said he was "confident that Nestl would close 2001 with higher sales and profits than the ones reached in record 2000."

Sweets and foodstuffs fared well, with Latin American sales taking up the slower pace of the US market, and strong progress seen in Eastern Europe.

Updated: 14:33 Wednesday, August 22, 2001