Business Insight Zone

Today’s Company of the Day is Nestle S.A.

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Nestle may still make the very best, N-E-S-T-L-E-S, but they make it in a lot more areas than chocolate. Many Americans are most familiar with the Nestle name because of its signature chocolate bars, which make the Swiss company the global rival of US-based Hershey and Mars. Yet chocolate makes up only a small part of the portfolio of the company, which is the largest food maker in all the world. Among many other market-leading positions, Nestle is the world’s top producer of baby food and coffee, and a power in pet food, pasta sauce, and other packaged foods.

One key growth area for Nestle, especially in North America, is bottled water, where the company is again #1. Through its Nestle Waters unit, the company offers dozens of water brands, including Ozarka, Poland Spring, Perrier, and San Pellegrino. These brands put Nestle in competition with other large beverage makers, including PepsiCo, which produces Aquafina, and Coca-Cola, which produces the Dasani brand.

Bottled water is the fastest-growing beverage category in North America, and Nestle and its rivals expect that growth to continue as more Americans concerned about obesity and other health concerns turn to water in place of soda. Yet these major water vendors have also come under fire from some environmentalists, who charge that bottled water places a huge premium on a product that can be had essentially for free from the tap, and that the billions of plastic water bottles discarded by Americans each year represent a heavy environmental burden. In part to answer these critics — and to save itself money for shipping costs — Nestle has introduced a lighter bottle design that uses less plastic. Meanwhile, it keeps touting water’s health effects of water and encouraging consumers take their water by the half-liter.

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Category: Company of the Day,Consumer goods