Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. (/ˈnɛsleɪ, -li, -əl/ NESS-lay, -lee, -əl, French: [nɛsle], German: [ˈnɛstlə] ⓘ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held 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 the largest public companies.
| Formerly | List
|
|---|---|
| Company type | Public (SA) |
| SIX: NESN | |
| ISIN | CH0038863350 |
| Industry | Food processing |
| Founded | 1866 (for the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company branch) |
| Founder | Henri Nestlé (for the Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé branch) |
| Headquarters | Vevey, Switzerland |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
| Products | Baby food, coffee, dairy products, breakfast cereals, confectionery, bottled water, ice cream, pet foods (list...) |
| Revenue | CHF 94.424 billion (2022) |
| CHF 13.195 billion (2022) | |
| CHF 9.596 billion (2022) | |
| Total assets | CHF 135.182 billion (2022) |
| Total equity | CHF 42.792 billion (2022) |
Number of employees | 275,000 (2022) |
| Subsidiaries | Cereal Partners Worldwide (50%) |
| Website | nestle.com |
| Footnotes / references | |
Nestlé's products include baby food (some including human milk oligosaccharides), medical food, bottled water, breakfast cereals, coffee and tea, confectionery, dairy products, ice cream, frozen food, pet foods, and snacks. 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", which was 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 World War I and again following World War II, expanding its offerings beyond its early condensed milk and infant formula products. The company has made a number of corporate acquisitions including Crosse & Blackwell in 1960, Findus in 1963, Libby's in 1971, Rowntree Mackintosh in 1988, Klim in 1998, and Gerber in 2007.
The company has been associated with various controversies, facing criticism and boycotts over its marketing of baby formula as an alternative to breastfeeding in developing countries (where clean water may be scarce), its reliance on child labour in cocoa production, and its production and promotion of bottled water.
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the company continued doing business in Russia; therefore in November 2023, Ukraine listed Nestlé as an International Sponsor of War.