Nestle Shrugs Off Rivals for U.K. Market Share

Swiss food behemoth Nestle(NSRGY) is seeking to intensify its imprint in the $6.6 billion U.K. confectionery market even though its competitors are becoming bigger and stronger, a report says: the new Kraft(KFT) and Cadbury entity is one example, of course.

Nestle aims to increase its share in the U.K. confectionery market by up to 0.2% points a year from the current 16%, the report says.

Meanwhile, Kraft has seen its U.K. share shoot up to about 30% from just 2% to 3% after buying Cadbury earlier this year, and Mars saw its market share rise to 24% after buying Wrigley two years ago.

"The two moves have concentrated the players, but not concentrated the brands. Consumers still have a similar number of brands to choose from," Nestle's head of U.K. and Ireland confectionery David Rennie told Reuters at Nestle's York plant in northern England.

A challenge for Nestle is coming in the form of climbing commodity prices, like that of cocoa, which is a key ingredient for the maker of KitKat, Crunch and Smarties. Still, despite all the growing competition and raw material pressures, the company says it won't be cutting any jobs for the sake of gaining competitive edge, Reuters says.

Nestle stock is down 2% to $46.58, while Kraft is 1.5% lower at $29.85.