Quality, taste and pleasure

Our Correspondent / EMIRATES BUSINESS

Nestle’s heritage in the Middle East goes back over 80 years to 1934 when the first import operation was set up in Lebanon. Building a foundation of trust among consumers has since made the company the region’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company.
Nestle owns and operates 18
factories that cater to the region, and provides direct employment to more than 11,000 people, more than half of whom work for Nestle waters.
Nestle also provides indirect employment to several thousand more. The Nestle Middle East entity itself was formed in 1997, with headquarters in the United Arab Emirates, consolidating the company’s presence in the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates), Levant (Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and Syria), Iran, Iraq and Yemen — covering a population of over 220 million.
“We are calling for an alliance for youth in the Middle East because we know from experience in other regions that our efforts can have a bigger social impact through partnerships and collaboration,” said Yves Manghardt, Chairman and CEO, Nestle Middle East . “Our objective is to mobilise companies that are determined to play a positive role in getting young people
opportunities for internships, career advising and career training.”
With total investments in the region of US$400 million over the last five years, for Nestle, the Middle East means growth, future potential, talent, and innovation. It also means a challenging business, considering security and political volatility in the region, which reflects directly on the wellbeing of its people.
One word that likely sums the region up for the company is ‘diversity,’ because that is what the Middle East is about in every way; home to developed and emerging economies with affluent population as well as many who have very little; a majority young population mixing with growing numbers of elderly; and completely different cultural demographics encompassing very strong traditional societies as well as very modern lifestyles.
Nestle understands the health concerns of the region and ensures that its products cater to the latest nutrition recommendations for healthy living. Nestle’s mission is to enhance people’s quality of life with good food and beverages everywhere. In the Middle East, the company strives to do that

by offering an array of tasty and healthy products that meet local needs for quality, safety, taste and pleasure – while addressing specific nutritional requirements to help achieve healthy and balanced diets across all life stages.
The Nestle portfolio in the Middle East currently exceeds 60 innovative product brands in a wide range of categories — dairy andinfant nutrition, bottled water, chocolate and confectionery, coffee, creamers, breakfast cereals,

culinary products, and pet food, among others. Nestle Nido, Nestle NAN, S-26, Progress, Maggi, Nescafe, Kit Kat, Coffeemate, NestleCerelasc, Nestle Pure Life, Nespresso and Nestle Fitness are just some of the brands available in the Middle East.

Creating Shared Value at
Nestle
Creating Shared Value (CSV) is the fundamental way Nestle does business across the entire value chain. It means that for a company to be successful, it should not only create value for shareholders but also for society at large. CSV is not philanthropy or an add-on, but a core principle that guides the practices of the company.
Nestle was the first multinational company to publish forward-looking commitments to society in the Middle East, with the unveiling in 2015 of the first regional ‘Nestle in Society — Creating Shared Value’ report — covering 20 commitments with specific objectives which Nestle aims to fulfill by 2017 or earlier in the areas of nutrition, responsible sourcing,
water, environmental sustainability, people, and
compliance.