Nestlé - statistics & facts
If one enterprise knows how to keep growing in a challenging global environment via shrewd acquisitions and divestment, it is Nestlé. Nestlé is the biggest FMCG company on the planet and is intent on keeping it that way. Its North American business can be seen as an example of acquisitions paying their dividends. The heart of Nestlé’s NA business is the sale of pet care products. The success in this industry can be traced back to the acquisitions of pet care companies Spillers Petfoods and Ralston Purina around the turn of the century, which vastly expanded the company’s presence in the pet food sector and especially in the U.S. market.
More recently Nestlé bought a majority of shares for the Brazilian premium chocolate company Grupo CRM. This purchase brought the brands Kopenhagen and Brazil Cacau into Nestlé’s sizeable brand portfolio. Nestlé also acquired the coffee brand Seattle’s Best Coffee from Starbucks in 2022.
The business of the number one
As the biggest Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company on the planet, the Swiss corporation needs no real introduction. Its business is primarily made with the sale of powdered and liquid beverages and pet care products with more than 25 billion Swiss francs and close to 18.5 billion Swiss francs in sales, respectively. Among the sectors the company is active in, confectionery ranks sixth in sales but has been growing for the past five years. This reversed a downward trend in confectionery sales from 2012 to 2020. In 2018, Nestlé divested itself from its U.S. confectionery business and sold it to Ferrero, intending to focus on growth markets in other categories.
Moving ahead with a tainted reputation
Nestlé has had its share of scandals, from the critique of its advertising practices for baby food in developing countries in the 1970s to more recent accusations of child labor on plantations that supply the company with cocoa. Nestlé responded by implementing its Cocoa Plan: a program which includes a Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System designed to reduce child labor risks. By now, 96.2 percent of its cocoa is sourced through this plan.
Staying in the lead
Beyond rectifying previous mistakes, Nestlé is proactively seeking to align its practices with standards increasingly demanded by shareholders and consumers alike. The company is moving forward with a transition of energy supplies for its manufacturing, and as of 2024, more than 95 percent of the company’s electricity demand for product manufacturing was covered by renewables. Furthermore, Nestlé boasts a share of 48.2 percent of women in middle and senior management positions. The company thus also addresses consumer demands for sustainability and social representation, future-proofing its reputation.
