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Nestlé S.A.
Nestlé S.A. is a multinational packaged-food and bottled-water
company, with headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland and an annual
turnover of more than SF87 billion. It originated in the 1905 merger
of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company for milk products, established
in 1866 by the Page Brothers in Cham, Switzerland and the Farine
Lactée Henri Nestlé Company, set up in 1866 by Henri Nestlé to
provide an infant food product. Both world wars affected corporate
growth: during the first, dried milk was widely used, but the
second caused profits to drop by around 70%. Sales of the instant
coffee Nescafé were boosted, however, by the U.S. military. After
both wars, growth was stimulated by acquisitions, allowing the
corporation to take over several well-known brands and expand its
range. These now include Maggi, Thomy and Nescafé, all of which
are known worldwide. Nestlé is the world’s largest food company.
Some of Nestlé’s past and current business actions have attracted
widespread criticism. The most prominent and well-documented
controversy concerns its methods of marketing processed cow’s
milk or baby formula (infant, or more recently, follow-on formula)
as a breast-milk substitute for mothers around the world, including
those in developing countries. The promotion of these products
in economically-disadvantaged countries is of particular concern.
During the Nestlé boycott of 1977, the company’s activities attracted
worldwide attention, but other aspects of its operations have also come
under attack. A Brazilian group called Cidadãos pelas Águas (Citizens
for Water) has called for a boycott of Nestlé products in Brazil over
the company’s extraction of water from an aquifer in São Lourenço.
Nestlé coffee and chocolate products are also being boycotted in
favour of fair trade alternatives. In late September 2008, the Hong
Kong government claimed to have found melamine in a Chinese-made
Nestlé milk product. The Dairy Farm milk was made by the company’s
division in the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao. Nestlé affirmed that all
its products were safe and were not made from contaminated milk. On
October 2, 2008, the Taiwan Health Ministry announced that six types
of milk powder produced by the food giant in China contained traces
of melamine.
w w w . n e s t l e . c o m (English)
w w w . i b f a n . o r g (critical website on baby food)
w w w . e n . w i k i p e d i a . o r g / w i k i / N e s t l e _ b o y c o t t (critical website)
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