Nestlé: For a Powerful and Prosperous Vietnam

Throughout more than 22 years of wholehearted dedication to Vietnam’s economic development, Nestlé has achieved a tremendous growth, bringing its total investment value in the country from US$21 million in 1995 to US$520 million at present. Knowing that safety and quality play a decisive role in building up customer trust, Nestlé has always endeavoured to fulfil its commitments to sustainable development in food industry - a pillar of its growth strategy, thus helping raise the quality of Vietnamese people’s livelihoods and caring the future of Vietnamese young generations for a prosperous and integrating Vietnam.

Commitments to sustainable development

Nestlé Vietnam Managing Director Ganesan Ampalavanar said, for Nestlé, growth and sustainability are always a priority, not only in Vietnam but also throughout the world, including Asia and the Pacific. The sustainability strategy comes from the company’s commitments to creating influences on such fields as individual and family; and community and planet. With this compass, every effort, initiative and action for sustainable development centres on common goals of providing Vietnamese consumers with healthy, nutritious and safe foods, and bringing true, right and sustainable values to the community.

As a global leading nutrition producer, Nestlé understands that its food products directly affect the life and health of consumers. For that reason, the group always places customers at the heart with the Nestlé Quality Management Policy, which consists of product safety and full compliance, consumer preference and product consistency, zero defects and no waste, and everybody’s commitment.

Sustainable production is also demonstrated by its continued introduction of high-quality products to the market that are familiar to consumers such as Nescafé, Milo, Maggi and Nestea. Each product line is based on research on and knowledge of consumers' needs and experienced a rigorous production process. For example, as for individual and family, based on nutritional criteria for each category and age, Nestlé makes products which are not only more delicious but also better for health. Nestlé always takes the lead in reducing salt and sugar adding micronutrients.

Especially, to ensure product quality and safety, each Nestlé product must undergo a strictly controlled process from raw input to production and finishing. The continuous investment in modern production lines also meets stringent standards of the Government of Vietnam and the world and is also a way for consumers to rest assured in using any Nestlé product. Although Nestlé currently has 440 plants worldwide, all apply strict quality standards to all manufactured products. By strictly adhering to consumer commitments, international quality management standards, and community values created, Nestlé actually strives and determines to bring better values to Vietnamese people.

Quality and sustainability have helped Nestlé make great strides in the Vietnamese market, growing in both scale and capacity. For the past 22 years, its total investment value in Vietnam has continuously increased from US$21 million in 1995 to US$520 million now. For many years, Nestlé has been honoured with many certificates of merit from tax authorities for fulfilling its tax obligations - part of its business commitments in the country.

Efforts to create values for the community

For more than 22 years of ongoing efforts, the spread of Nestlé brand values has extended beyond its business operations to create community values. Nestlé Managing Director Ganesan Ampalavanar said, “A sustainable and successful enterprise is not simply judged by its core business. In addition to business, a sustainable company must be ethical, responsible to shareholders and to society as a good corporate citizen by contributing to the community and the country where it operates. It must be aware that it is part of society and must develop sustainably together in a new century with such a society. Therefore, it must strive to be an example of making a sustainably prosperous society. This is how Nestlé performs its corporate social responsibility and creates trust in the community.”

With its practical actions and meaningful programmes, Nestlé has helped develop prosperous, vibrant communities, improved rural livelihoods, and brought sustainable incomes. Particularly, the Nescafé Plan - a sustainable coffee development plan - was launched in 2011 in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Not only helping Nestlé stabilise high quality coffee supplies, it has helped improve 20,000 hectares of aging coffee trees and raise the quality of Vietnamese coffee beans, giving a helping hand to Vietnam to secure its position as No. 1 Robusta coffee producer in the world. Especially, with this project, Nestlé has actively improved livelihood of Vietnamese coffee growers by increasing their incomes by over 30 per cent with a programme to train 200,000 farmers, supply more than two million disease-resistant, high-yield seedlings, help 21,000 farmers achieve 4C international coffee certifications, and raise the role and status of female farmers participating in the plan.

Another outstanding activity of Nestlé for community development is the Vietnam Dynamic Programme. The programme is part of the National Project 641 - the Master Plan for Physical Strength and Stature of Vietnamese People in 2011-2020. The programme includes supporting sports facilities for schools and linking previous school sports such as Phu Dong Games and Basketball Tournament, thus helping kids to have more opportunities to do more sports.

As part of the overall goal of building the trust with community values, Nestlé has also directed its priority to managing resources for future generations, safeguarding water resources, taking actions to climate change and protecting the environment. For example, the Nescafé Plan has helped reduce water needed by 40 per cent, and chemical fertilisers and pesticides by 20 per cent, towards protecting the environment and building a sustainable environment. In production, the Nestlé Tri An plant powered by state-of-the-art technology pioneered the use of biomass and reduced seven per cent of its energy consumption, 96 per cent of wastes and 22 per cent of greenhouse gases in production each year. In addition, recycled materials in Nescafé production are used to make bricks rather than discharge them into the environment. “Only by doing environment-friendly business and other practical actions for the sake of the community and the whole society can a brand build up the community trust. Nestlé has managed to do it. And, we are committed to working hard to contribute more to the development and prosperity of Vietnam as well as the Asia-Pacific region. We are willing to share our experience, knowledge and achievements in all areas by engaging all stakeholders from upstream and downstream business organisations, social organisations and communities where Nestlé operates. Nestlé believes that the power of proactive cooperation of the entire business chain will bring about positive changes and more values for Vietnam in particular and the world in general,” said Ganesan Ampalavanar.

Thanh Tung