Nestlé to invest in becoming healthier

The Nestlé Growth Fund, which is due to be operational by the first quarter of 2006, is designed to allow Nestlé to invest in new businesses in the area of science and nutrition. "The money will be invested over a period of five to seven years with the aim of identifying companies that could contribute to Nestlé's expansion into health, wellness and nutrition, and helping them grow to a size that would make it possible to integrate them into our network," said media spokesperson François-Xavier Perroud. The new fund will be investing in companies with products or processes in the final testing stage or about to come onto the market, said Nestlé. "The fund is a strategic tool in the reorientation of the Nestlé Group from a food and beverage group to a food, beverage, health, nutrition and wellness group," Perroud told BakeryAndSnacks.com. According to Perroud, the success of a company is built on science and on the corporation's response to existing societal needs. "Nestlé has always been successful in launching products whose time has come, for example baby food or instant coffee," said Perroud. "We are already positioned as a company that manufactures healthy products, but consumers are becoming more and more demanding. They now have a higher degree of familiarity with nutritional issues and a higher demand for quality, safety, health and well-being. The Growth Fund is our response to those demands," he added. Although the company wants to be the "preferred choice" of all consumer groups, one particular group it will be targeting is the senior segment of society. "This is a prominent, wealthy, evident group of consumers in industrialized countries. Consumers are growing older and have specific nutritional needs. It is our task to respond to these by manufacturing products targeted at obesity, diabetes and other age-related illnesses," said Perroud. External links to companies or organisations mentioned in thisstory: Nestlé