Nestlé

Nestlé S.A. is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 2014. It ranked No. 64 on the Fortune Global 500 in 2017 and No. 33 in the 2016 edition of the Forbes Global 2000 list of largest public companies.

Twenty-nine of Nestlé's brands have annual sales of over 1 billion CHF (about US$1.1 billion), including Nespresso, Nescafé, Kit Kat, Smarties, Nesquik, Stouffer's, Vittel, and Maggi. Nestlé has 447 factories, operates in 189 countries, and employs around 339,000 people. It is one of the main shareholders of L'Oreal, the world's largest cosmetics company. 

Nestlé was formed in 1905 by the merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1866 by brothers George and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1867 by Henri Nestlé. The company grew significantly during the First World War and again following the Second World War, expanding its offerings beyond its early condensed milk and infant formula products

The company clocked in a net revenue of $ 91.8 Billion with an operating profit of 15.5 billion USD. The powdered and liquid beverages is the highest selling segment for Nestlé, followed by Petcare.

Product/Business Portfolio

Nestlé SA has categorized its business portfolio under 12 major categories:

1. Baby Foods

• Cerelac
• Gerber
• NaturNes

2. Bottled Water

• Nestlé Pure Life
• Perrier
• S Pellegrino

3. Cereals

• Cheerios
• Fitness
• Lion
• Nesquik Cereal

4. Chocolate and Confectionery

• Aero
• Cailler
• KitKat
• Milkybar
• Orion
• Quality Street
• Smarties
• Toll House
• Nestlé Les Recettes de l'Atelier

5. Coffee

• Nescafé
• Nescafé 3 in 1
• Nescafé Cappuccino
• Nescafé Classic
• Nescafé Decaff
• Nescafé Dolce Gusto
• Nescafé Gold
• Nespresso

6. Culinary, chilled and frozen food

• Buitoni
• Herta
• Hot Pockets
• Lean Cuisine
• Maggi
• Stouffer’s
• Thomy

7. Dairy

• Carnation
• Coffee-Mate
• La Laitière
• Nido

8. Drinks

• Milo
• Nesquik
• Nestea

9. Food Service

• Chef
• Chef-Mate
• Minor’s
• Sjora
• Lean Cuisine
• Stouffer’s

10. Healthcare Nutrition

• Boost
• Nutren Junior
• Peptamen
• Resource

11. Ice Cream

• Drayer’s
• Extrême
• Häagen-Dazs
• Mövenpick
• Nestlé Ice Cream

12. Petcare

• Alpo
• Bakers Complete
• Beneful
• Cat Chow
• Chef Michael’s Canine Creations
• Dog Chow
• Fancy Feast
• Felix
• Friskies
• Gourmet
• Purina
• Purina ONE
• Pro Plan

Nestlé India Brands

• Nescafe Sunrise
• Nestlé Koko Krunch
• NesPlus
• BarOne
• Munch
• Nestlé A+
• Nestlé Milkmaid
• Lactogrow
• Nangrow
• Ceregrow
• Nestlé Professional

Project Nanhi Kali

Jointly managed by K. C. Mahindra Education Trust and Naandi Foundation, Project Nanhi Kali, is supported by Nestlé India. #EducateTheGirlChild will have the desired impact on helping Nanhi Kali put a million girls in school through the new packaging of MAGGI, NESCAFÉ, and KitKat carrying the message.

Project Jagriti

This initiative encourages healthy nutrition and breastfeeding practices, increasing the uptake of public health services through community sessions.

Recent Mergers and Acquisitions

• Nestlé USA acquired Essentia Water, the premium functional water brand
• Nestlé and KKR have agreed to an agreement in March 2021 in which Nestlé will acquire core brands of The Bountiful Company for USD 5.75 billion
• Nestlé informed in October 2020 that it has taken over Freshly, one of the major fresh-prepared meal delivery services in the U.S
• Nestlé Health Sciences acquires Aimmune Therapeutics, to manage their global pharmaceutical business as a standalone company

Top 5 Competitors

• Unilever
• P&G
• Mondelez
• Pepsico
• Mars

Recent News and Developments

• After much anticipation, Nestlé all set to launch a vegan version of KitKat, named KitKat V
• Nestlé Health Science all set to acquire Nuun, the functional hydration startup
• Nestlé SA sold its water business in North America and Canada to One Rock Capital Partners for USD 4.3 billion
• Nestlé SA also disinvested in Yinlu peanut milk and canned rice porridge business and sold it to Food Wise Co. Ltd
• Nestlé’s Garden Gourmet brand received the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label award for its innovative plant based meat solutions

Opportunities at Nestlé

Student Opportunities

Nestlé India runs its flagship MT programme for the management students from all across the country. Nestlé mostly hires MTs through summer internship programs and case study competitions. 

New joinees at Nestlé go through a 6 month MT programme during they are required to work for several challenging stints in marketing, sales, operations, finance, IT, HR etc.

Work Environment and Culture

• Nestlé is known for its healthy work culture 
• The work environment is pleasant, supportive and collaborative
• Nestlé has a vast network of the workforce in all major geographies and the people are helpful in general
• The company follows high moral and ethical standards
• Work culture is pretty much hierarchical and the organization, given its size and scale follows a lot of bureaucracy
• Not the best organization at recognizing its employees’ work and talent
• Work-life balance differs from unit to unit
• At the management level, the pay is one of the best in the industry

Values:

At Nestlé, the people aim at promoting the highest standards of business and to do so, they have developed a culture of integrity and respect in the workplace. The people at Nestlé are encouraged to give transparent feedback on what is working at the company and what needs improvement through surveys. The work culture at Nestlé is built upon diversity, employee health and wellness, and safety, thereby creating an environment which is safe, has a balanced gender mix and creates a healthy workforce.

• Doing business right
• Putting their values at the heart of what they do.
• Advocating for change.
• Prioritizing key issues
• Talking to the right people
• Collaborating for major change
• Awarding good work
• Bringing new ideas to life, Being transparent at all times.