Nestlé Keeps Chocolate, but Tightens Its Focus

Speaking at the recent Deutsche Bank Global Consumer Conference, CEO Philipp Navratil outlined a streamlined strategy built around four growth platforms: coffee, pet care, nutrition and health, and food and snacks. 

Chocolate remains inside that final category rather than standing as an independent pillar, suggesting Nestlé increasingly sees confectionery as part of a broader snacking portfolio rather than a separate engine of growth.

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KitKat Remains Strategic

Despite the shift in language, Nestlé continues to support its largest chocolate assets. Navratil highlighted marketing and innovation as key priorities and pointed to campaigns including the KitKat 'stolen truck' activation. The company has allocated additional advertising spending while concentrating resources on fewer brands and fewer campaigns to improve returns.

“We have focused our media spend from roughly 400 brands to 100 brands,” Navratil told investors, emphasising that spreading resources too thin had failed to generate adequate returns.

For chocolate, that concentration favours scale brands such as KitKat, which remains one of Nestlé’s global billion-dollar brands.