The international conglomerate Nestle, Vevey, Switzerland, said last week that sales through the first half of the year rose 4.5% to 42.8 billion Swiss francs ($43.8 billion). Real internal growth was 1.7%. Download the complete report from the Nestle website.

In North America, the company said new products delivered “solid growth” for Häagen Dazs super-premium ice cream and Outshine frozen fruit bars. The coffee creamer brand Coffee-mate grew well, supported by innovations like Natural Bliss and Coffee-mate 2GO.

Commenting on other products in the region, Nestle said it relaunched its frozen meals brands with the new Lean Cuisine Market Place and Stouffers Fit Kitchen ranges. “The first signs are promising and indicate that we are meeting the fast-changing expectations of consumers,” according to the press release.

New additions to the Snack Bites range helped deliver solid growth for Hot Pockets, and the company saw some improvement in frozen pizza. Petcare showed good growth, in spite of the negative impact from the Beneful case. Among the drivers were Fancy Feast cat food, the Pro Plan platform for dog food, and cat litter.

In Latin America, Nestle said “We continued to grow our business in what is still a volatile environment.” Investment behind our growth platforms drove performance in Brazil. Nescafé Dolce Gusto and KitKat both delivered strong double-digit growth, as did soluble coffee. Nescau achieved good growth for cocoa and malt beverages while Passatempo and Nesfit did well for biscuits. Mexico grew during the first half, led by Nescafé and Coffee-mate. Petcare continued to be a growth driver for Latin America and will benefit from new production capacity in Argentina and Mexico.