• just-food home
• Companies

Nestle

---

Activist investors putting pressure on food companies is not new, especially not in recent years, although Nestle's stature in the industry may have raised eyebrows as US investment fund Third Point made the world's largest food business the latest to feel the heat. However, there were already signs of change at Nestle under new CEO Mark Schneider, Dean Best argues.

---

Confectionery, particularly chocolate, is one of Nestle's flagship businesses and has often been the subject of speculation among industry watchers and the investment community. For much of the last decade, talk centred on whether Nestle would look to build its position in confectionery through the acquisition of a company like Switzerland's Lindt & Sprungli but, in recent quarters, the chatter has switched to whether the KitKat maker would look to quit the sector. Nestle's announcement yesterday (15 June) of plans to review the future of its US confectionery business has sparked a debate among analysts covering the world's largest food group. Dean Best reports.

---

With first-quarter results rolling in, Jefferies consumer goods analyst Martin Deboo argues the numbers underline the issues facing the sector's largest players.

---

The rate at which Nestle's organic sales rose in the first quarter of 2017 was the slowest this century but the results, issued on Thursday, were dampened by calendar effects and were a tick above analyst expectations. Dean Best reports on the key takeaways from the figures and from Nestle's discussions on the numbers with analysts.

Gerber, one of the most-established names in the baby food sector, is marking its 90th anniversary. In some markets, a company can trade on that longevity; in others, it can turn some consumers off. Bill Partyka, Gerber's president and CEO, talks to Dean Best about how the Nestle-owned company is emphasising its heritage in China but seeking to adapt to changing consumer tastes in the US.

---

Nestle's travel retail unit is a US$100m-plus business, which generates the lion's share of its revenue from confectionery. Stewart Dryburgh, who heads the company's travel retail business, says the sector, while a small part of the Nestle empire, presents a strong growth avenue for the group. However, Dryburgh acknowledges it is also a competitive and fast-paced channel and those companies that want to cash in need to navigate some unique challenges. Katy Askew spoke to Dryburgh to find out more.

Nestle's moves to lower the sugar in its chocolate products has taken in India.

---

Nestle has opened a "food safety institute" at its R&D site in India, two years after the quality and safety of the Maggi noodles it was selling in the country was called into question.

---

Food giants Danone and Kellogg have signed up to an agreement with the Swiss government to reduce sugar content in yogurts and breakfast cereals in the country by the end of 2018.

---

Nestle has snapped up US plant-based foods maker Sweet Earth for an undisclosed sum.

---

Nestle is looking to stay 'on trend' in the UK in using baked goods to influence new chocolate bar flavours with the launch of a New York cheesecake flavoured chunky KitKat.

---

California confectionery company Leaf Brands is the latest firm to be linked with a bid for Nestle's US candy business.

---

Lactalis-owned UK yogurt maker Rachel's is tapping into the free-from trend with the launch of what it suggests is the first-ever organic, lactose-free yogurt.

---

Technology giant IBM has announced it will be working with a consortium that includes food giants Nestle, Tyson Foods and Unilever to bring the benefit of blockchains to the food supply chain.

---

Global food giant Nestle saw sales decrease in the first half of the year, hit by divestments and foreign-exchange adjustments.

---

US confectioner Ferrara Candy Company has been named as a possible suitor in the sale of Nestle's US confectionery business.

---

Ferrero, the Italy-based food group behind Kinder chocolate, is reportedly weighing up a move for Nestle's confectionery business in the US, which the world's largest food maker may be ready to sell.

---

An I Love Fruits range is just one of the KitKat delights Nestle will produce at its new factory in Japan when it comes on stream in August, as the company seeks to satisfy increasing appetite for locally-made chocolate brands.

---

Nestle to relocate its base in Uruguay in a bid to become more efficient and to try to drive its growth in the South American country.

---

Nestle has refused to be drawn on UK union claims spending of GBP1m would mean manufacturing of Blue Riband biscuits could be kept in the country - but the company has defended its plan to move production and the wider changes it is planning to make to its local confectionery business.

---

Nestle has claimed it has developed the first infant formula to contain two oligosachardies contained in human breast milk, (HMOs), which are said to be associated with healthier immune systems and a reduction in the incidence of disease in babies.

---

Nestle could keep production of UK biscuit brand Blue Riband in the country with a "one-off" investment of GBP1m, local union the GMB has claimed in its latest bid to put pressure on the company not to shift output to Poland.

---

Cereal Partners Worldwide is to reduce the amount of sugar used in the Nestle-branded breakfast cereals it markets in the UK, one of the venture's partners has said.

---

Nestle has launched a non-dairy range of Häagen-Dazs ice cream in the US to try to tap into growing consumer demand for vegan products.

---

Nestle is to invest in an infant formula plant in Spain, with an eye on the manufacturing of a product for sale in China.

---

Nestle, Unilever and PepsiCo have joined with other companies and financial institutions in a venture that aims to develop a new framework to encourage and measure long-term value creation.

---

Nestle has outlined where it plans to focus its resources on trying to drive growth, including in the consumer health sector, just days after an activist investor bought a stake in the world's largest food maker and called on the business to shake up its "staid culture".

---

Nestle has teamed up with UberEats to offer home delivery of its baby food to consumers in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.

Nestle, set to welcome a new CEO on 1 January, has announced more changes to the make-up of its senior management team.

---

Wow. Your correspondent is penning this blog following precious little sleep after the combination of a humid night in London and the emergence of the most significant event in UK history since 1945 made sleep tricky on Thursday night.