Nestlé Portugal loses 1.5% market share in 2023

Nestlé Portugal lost market share on its own brands last year falling from 33.5% to 32%.

According to the company’s CEO Anna Lenz, this fall was partly down to the overall economic situation, which was normal in years of economic crisis with high inflation when market share is gained by supermarket (own label) brands”, she told business daily Negócios.

“These are the ones that grow the most and Portugal was the market where these grew the most in Europe. Moreover, we had had a strong increase in market share during the pandemic,” she said.

Anna Lenz admitted that the (higher) price of (their own brands) influenced the situation, but added “we’ll never be able to (reduce our prices) to the ones practised by the retail brands. Our concept has to do with the value the products bring which gives them a superiority in terms of recipes and innovation”.

Other factors are also involved, such as emotional ones – whereby the public has a particular fondness for a band – such as Nestum in the case of Nestlé, a cereal product that had been around for 60 years, and is a strong brand in Portugal with a 90% market share, and has a nostalgic link with people’s childhoods.