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| Nestlé |
Nestlé S.A. is the largest food and nutrition company in the world, founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, which was established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and the Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé Company, which was founded in 1867 by Henri Nestlé. The company grew significantly during the First World War and following the Second World War, eventually expanding its offerings beyond its early condensed milk and infant formula products. Today, the company operates in 86 countries around the world and employs nearly 283,000 people.
The company dates to 1867, when two separate Swiss enterprises were founded that would later form the core of Nestlé. In the succeeding decades the two competing enterprises aggressively expanded their businesses throughout Europe and the United States.
In August 1867 Charles A and George Page, two brothers from Lee County, Illinois, USA established the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company in Cham. Their first British operation was opened at Chippenham, Wiltshire in 1873.
Nestlé has 6,000 brands, with a wide range of products across a number of markets including coffee (Nescafé), bottled water, other beverages (including Aero (chocolate) & Skinny Cow), chocolate, ice cream, infant foods, performance and healthcare nutrition, seasonings, frozen and refrigerated foods, confectionery and pet food.
In 2000 Nestlé and other chocolate companies formed the World Cocoa Foundation. The WCF was set up specifically to deal with issues facing cocoa farmers (disease had wiped out much of the cocoa crop in Brazil) including ineffective farming techniques and poor environmental management. The WCF focuses on boosting farmer income, encouraging sustainable farming techniques and environmental and social programmes.
Nestlé is a founding participant in the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), an independent foundation set up in 2002 and dedicated to ending child and forced labour in cocoa growing, and eliminating child trafficking and abusive labour practices.
In October 2009 Nestlé announced its Cocoa Plan. The company will invest CHF 110 million in the Plan over ten years to achieve a sustainable cocoa supply. On the 23rd October 2009 Nestlé and CNRA, the Ivorian National Centre for Plant Science Research, signed a frame agreement for cooperation in plant science and propagation, with a target of producing 1 million high-quality, disease-resistant cocoa plantlets a year by 2012. The aim is to replace old, less productive trees with healthier new ones.
Nestlé is launching a Fair Trade branded Kit Kat in the UK and Ireland from January 2010.
One of the most prominent controversies involving Nestlé concerns the promotion of the use of infant formula to mothers across the world including developing countries, an issue that attracted significant attention in 1977 as a result of the Nestlé boycott which is still ongoing. Nestlé continues to draw criticism that it is in violation of a 1981 World Health Organization code that regulates the advertising of breast milk formulas. Nestlé's policy states that breastmilk is the best food for infants, and that women who cannot or choose not to breast feed for whatever reason need an alternative to ensure that their babies are getting the nutrition they need.
In 2002 Nestlé demanded the nation of Ethiopia repay $6million of debt to the company. Ethiopia was suffering a severe famine at the time. Nestlé backed down from their demand after more than 8,500 people complained to the company about its treatment of the Ethiopian government, and agreed to re-invest any money they received from Ethiopia back into the country.
A coalition of environmental groups filed a complaint against Nestlé to the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards after Nestlé took out full page advertisements in October 2008 claiming that "Most water bottles avoid landfill sites and are recycled", "Nestlé Pure Life is a healthy, eco-friendly choice" and that "Bottled water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world". A spokesperson from one of the environmental groups stated: "For Nestlé to claim that its bottled water product is environmentally superior to any other consumer product in the world is not supportable". In their 2008 Corporate Citizenship Report, Nestlé themselves stated that many of their bottles end up in the solid waste-stream and that most of their bottles are not recycled. The advertising campaign has been called greenwashing.
In late September 2009, it was brought to light that Nestlé was buying milk from illegally-seized farms currently operated by Robert Mugabe's wife, Grace Mugabe. Mugabe and his regime are currently subject to European Union sanctions. Nestlé later stopped buying milk from the dairy farms in question.
Rapid deforestation in Borneo and other regions to harvest hardwood and make way for oil palm plantations sends massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In particular, where peat swamp forests are cleared, destroying the habitat for many threatened species of animals such as the orangutan, much public attention has been given to the environmental impact of palm oil and the role of multi-nationals such as Nestlé in this. There is ongoing concern by various NGOs including Greenpeace.
Nestlé were met with "a deluge of criticism from consumers, after a large number of Facebook users posted negative comments about the company's business practises." Nestlé's attempt to engage with the issue were met with criticism, including headlines stating: "Nestlé fails at social media", and "Nestlé Loses Face On Facebook". Nestlé Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, in answer to a question from Greenpeace, told the Company’s Annual General Meeting in Lausanne on April 15, 2010 that in 2009 Nestlé used 320,000 tonnes of palm oil worldwide, comparing this with the 500,000 tonnes of palm oil used for biodiesel in Germany and Italy alone.
The 2010 documentary The Dark Side of Chocolate alleges that Nestlé purchases cocoa beans from Ivory Coast plantations that use child slave labor. The children are usually 12 to 15 years old, and some are trafficked from nearby countries. In September of 2001, Bradley Alford, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé USA signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol (commonly called the Cocoa Protocol), an international agreement aimed at ending child labor in the production of cocoa. A 2009 joint police operation conducted by INTERPOL and Ivorian law enforcement officers resulted in the rescue of 54 children and the arrest of eight people involved in the illegal recruitment of children.