Shares in Nestle rose this morning after the Swiss food giant posted a fall in first-quarter revenues – but its organic sales growth beat analyst forecasts.

Nestle recorded a 9.3% slide in sales for the first three months of the year to CHF20.26bn (US$22.68bn). The company pointed to the strength of the Swiss franc and the impact of the sale of the company’s stake in eyecare business Alcon.

However, on an organic basis, sales were up 6.4%, beating a consensus analyst forecast that Nestle’s organic sales would rise 5.7%.

Nestle’s “real internal growth” – a company measure that excludes pricing, currency fluctuations and the impact of M&A – was 4.9%. Analysts had forecast growth of 3.6%.

On an organic basis, Nestle sales were up 2.3% in Europe, rose 3.7% in the Americas and climbed 11.8% in the company’s third geographic region of Asia, Oceania and Africa.

Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke described the company’s first quarter as a “strong start” to the year and said the business had “achieved growth” in all its categories.

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Shares in Nestle had risen 1.13% to CHF53.85 at 10:17 CET.

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