Nestlé

Nestlé S.A. is a Swiss company that makes many kinds of food and drinks. Its headquarters are in Vevey, Switzerland. Since 2014, it has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other measures. It ranked No. 64 on the Fortune Global 500 in 2017, and in 2023 it was ranked 50th in the Forbes Global 2000.

Nestlé makes a wide range of products, including coffee and tea, candy and chocolate, bottled water, infant formula, baby food, dairy products and ice cream, frozen foods, breakfast cereals, snacks, pet foods, and medical food. Twenty-nine of its brands sell more than 1 billion CHF a year (about US$1.1 billion). These include Nespresso, Nescafé, Nestea, Kit Kat, Smarties, Nesquik, Stouffer Corporation, Vittel, and Maggi. The company has 335 factories, operates in 185 countries, and employs around 271,000 people. It is also one of the main shareholders of L'Oréal, the world's largest cosmetics company.

Nestlé was formed in 1905 when the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company, which was established in 1866 by brothers George Ham Page and Charles Page, joined with "Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé," founded in 1867 by Henri Nestlé. The company grew a great deal during World War I and again after World War II. It expanded beyond its early condensed milk and infant formula products and bought many other companies.

Nestlé has faced longstanding criticism over its business practices. Its promotion of infant formula in developing countries led to a boycott in the 1970s, because it discouraged breastfeeding, and over ten million infants died as a result. The company has also been criticized for links to child labor, forced labor, and deforestation in West African cocoa production. It has been fined for price-fixing cartels, criticized for its water extraction practices, and criticized for plastic pollution.

History

Nestlé's story began in the 1860s with two Swiss companies that later joined together. In 1866, Charles Page (US consul to Switzerland) and George Ham Page, brothers from Lee County, Illinois, set up the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company in Cham, Switzerland. Its first British operation opened at Chippenham, Wiltshire, in 1873. In 1867, Henri Nestlé developed a milk-based baby food and began selling it from Vevey. Daniel Peter then spent seven years developing the milk chocolate process, and in 1879 Nestlé merged with him. Later, Henri Nestlé and his successors took part in the chocolate industry in Switzerland, alongside the Peter, Kohler, and Cailler families, and Charles-Amédée Kohler was among those involved. In 1905, Nestlé and Anglo-Swiss merged, and the company later took the name of Maggi, which it acquired in 1947. The First World War created demand for dairy products, and in 1919 Nestlé bought condensed milk plants in Oregon from Geibisch and Joplin, including plants in Bandon and Milwaukie. After the World War I ended, the company streamlined its operations, and white chocolate was created as the Milkybar. Under Édouard Muller, Nestlé faced the Second World War and introduced Nescafé during the war. From the 1960s through the 1980s, Nestlé bought many companies, including Crosse & Blackwell, Findus, Libby's, Ursina-Franck, and Stouffer's, and took a shareholding in L'Oreal and bought Alcon Laboratories Inc.. It also acquired Carnation, which brought the evaporated milk brand, Coffee-Mate, and Friskies, and it founded Nestlé Nespresso S.A.. In 1988, it bought the British company Rowntree Mackintosh, which brought Kit Kat, Rolo, Smarties, and Aero.

From the 1990s, Nestlé grew around the world. Late 1990s purchases included San Pellegrino, D'Onofrio, and Spillers Petfoods, and in 1999 it sold the Findus brand to EQT AB. In the early 2000s, it bought Ralston Purina, Dreyer's ice cream, and Chef America, the creator of Hot Pockets, for US$2.6 billion. It came close to buying Hershey's, but that deal fell through. In 2006, Nestlé bought Jenny Craig, and in 2007 it acquired Ovaltine and bought Gerber for US$5.5 billion. It also formed a partnership with Pierre Marcolini. In 2008, melamine was found in a Chinese-made Nestlé milk product, and six babies died from kidney damage. The next year, an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 was linked to cookie dough from a plant in Danville, Virginia. In 2010, Nestlé agreed to sell its stake in Alcon to Novartis, and it bought Kraft Foods's frozen pizza business, which included DiGiorno, Tombstone, and California Pizza Kitchen. Since 2010, it has worked to become a nutrition, health, and wellness company, including genetic disorders products. In 2012, it agreed to buy Pfizer Inc.'s infant-nutrition unit for US$11.9 billion, beating a joint bid from Danone and Mead Johnson. Nestlé later acquired companies that made kiwifruit-based foods and products for patients. In 2015, regulators in Uttar Pradesh, India, found lead and monosodium glutamate in samples of Nestlé India's Maggi noodles. In 2016, it formed the joint venture Froneri with PAI Partners. In 2017, it moved its US headquarters from Glendale, California to Rosslyn, Virginia, and it agreed to end the Beverage Partners Worldwide venture with Coca-Cola, partly so it could grow Nestea alone. After a letter from Third Point Management founder Daniel S. Loeb, Nestlé announced a large share buyback and bought most of Blue Bottle Coffee. In 2018, it sold its US candy brands, including 100 Grand, BabyRuth, Butterfinger, OhHenry!, Raisinets, and SnoCaps, to Ferrara Candy Company, a Ferrero-related company, and it made a distribution deal with Starbucks. In 2021, it bought the vitamin maker Bountiful Company and sold its water brands in the US and Canada to Metropoulos & Co. Nestlé's sales grew during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, Nestlé sent baby formula to the US during the 2022 United States infant formula shortage, and it bought the Brazilian food maker Puravida. It also bought a majority stake in the chocolate maker Grupo CRM, based in Extrema, Minas Gerais. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the company kept doing business in Russia, and Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention listed Nestlé as an International Sponsor of War. In 2024, Laurent Freixe replaced Schneider as chief executive. In September 2025, Freixe was dismissed, and Philipp Navratil became the new chief executive. Bulcke also left as chairman earlier than planned. Later that year, Nestlé announced it would cut 16,000 jobs. In January 2026, it recalled infant formula over possible cereulide contamination, and Austria's health ministry called it the largest recall in Nestlé's history. In March 2026, Nestlé agreed to sell Blue Bottle Coffee to Centurium Capital.

Brands

Main article: List of Nestlé brands

Nestlé currently has over 2,000 brands, with many kinds of products sold in many countries. These include coffee, bottled water, milkshakes and other beverages, breakfast cereals, infant foods, performance and healthcare nutrition, seasonings, soups and sauces, frozen and refrigerated foods, and pet food.

In 2019, the company entered the plant-based food production business with its Incredible and Awesome Burgers, which are sold under the Garden Gourmet and Sweet Earth brands. In 2020, Nestlé announced more plant-based products, including soy-based bratwurst and chorizo-like sausages.

Corporate affairs and governance

Nestlé is the biggest food company in the world, with a market value of about 203 billion Swiss francs as of December 2025. It is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and is part of the Swiss Market Index. It used to be listed on Euronext as well. In 2025, the company's sales were CHF 89.49 billion and its profit was CHF 9.03 billion. It spent CHF 1.61 billion on Research and development. As of 2023, about 46.6% of the company was owned by people or groups in Switzerland, 31.2% in the United States, and 22.2% elsewhere.

Nestlé works with other companies in several joint ventures. These include Cereal Partners Worldwide, run with General Mills for cereals, and Froneri, run with PAI Partners for ice cream. It also has a licensing agreement with Starbucks for coffee sold outside Starbucks Cafés, and joint ventures with Lactalis, Indofood, Snow Brand Milk Products, and Grupo Modelo. Its chief executives have been Helmut Maucher, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Paul Bulcke, Ulf Mark Schneider, Laurent Freixe, and, since 2025, Philipp Navratil. The board is led by chairman Pablo Isla. Its members include people who have worked for Ahold Delhaize, Credit Suisse, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Harman International, the University of Pretoria, Apple Inc., Ecolab, Danaher Corporation, DSM-Firmenich, the Swiss National Bank, and Procter & Gamble. Members also include Patrick Aebischer, Thomas Jordan, and Fama Francisco. The company hires outside lobbying firms to speak with parliaments and governments in different places. From 2015 to 2020, its average lobbying spending in the United States was $1,951,667 each year.

Controversies

Main article: Controversies of Nestlé

Nestlé has faced criticism and boycotts for how it sold baby formula, which critics linked to the deaths of millions of infants. It has also been criticized for child labour in cocoa production and for making and promoting bottled water. Concern about Nestlé's "aggressive marketing" of breast milk substitutes, especially in less economically developed countries, began in the 1970s. Critics said the company discouraged mothers from breastfeeding and suggested that its baby formula was healthier. This led to the 1977 Nestlé boycott in the United States and Europe. Reports have also described widespread child labour, along with cases of slavery and child trafficking, on cocoa farms in West African countries. Nestlé and other large chocolate companies depend on these farms.

In 2025, researchers at NewClimate Institute and Carbon Market Watch said Nestlé was overstating its progress in cutting methane emissions from livestock and fertilizer. They also said the company relied too much on greenhouse gas removal instead of cutting emissions at their source. Nestlé replied that 91% of its emissions reduction in 2024 came from cutting emissions at their source, and that it had significantly reduced methane emissions since 2018. A 2024 study in Science Advances found that Nestlé was responsible for 3% of the world's branded plastic pollution, by count. This was the third highest share of branded plastic pollution worldwide.

Sponsorships

Nestlé has sponsored many music, entertainment, and sports events. In 1993, it took over from Kraft Foods as sponsor of The Land pavilion at Walt Disney's EPCOT Center, which was given a major makeover. Nestlé also partnered with the Beijing Music Festival and the Salzburg Festival in Austria. Together with the Salzburg Festival, it created an award to help young conductors grow their careers.

In sports, Nestlé sponsored the Tour de France from 2001, and Nestlé Waters promoted brands such as Vittel, Powerbar, Nesquik, and Ricore through the race. In 2012, Nestlé became the main sponsor of the International Association of Athletics Federations's Kids' Athletics Programme. It withdrew in 2016 because of doping and corruption allegations against the group, after other large sponsors, including Adidas, had also stopped supporting it. In 2002, Nestlé backed the Great Britain Lionesses Women's rugby league team with its Munchies product. Nestlé also supports nutrition and fitness activities at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Awards