It’s easy to take a 150-year-old brand for granted. And it’s forgivable to think you know who they are after all these years, though history teaches us a different lesson. So, ahead of our trip to Nestlé’s Washington-area HQ next week, we thought we’d do a little digging to see who they really are in 2019. You might be as surprised as we were to learn some of it.
1) Nestlé is the largest food and beverage company in the world. Period. Huge. Like 447 factories huge. 300,000 employee huge.
2) The brand’s history dates back to 1866, when German-born pharmacist Henri Nestlé founded the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company.
3) To get a sense of Nestlé’s massive scale, consider for a moment that no fewer than 29 of its brands have annual sales topping $1 billion. Ever hear of Nesquik, Kit Kat or Stouffer’s? Thought so.
4) A whopping 80% of Nestlé USA products are sold east of the Mississippi River. Why? No idea. But we do know this fascinating stat played a role in the company relocating its US headquarters from Glendale, California, to Rosslyn, Virginia (just across the Key Bridge from Washington) in 2018.
5) Nestlé USA has donated 11.7 million meals in 2019 as part of an ongoing partnership with Feeding America to alleviate hunger. Community matters.
6) Nestlé is the world’s largest coffee producer. Perhaps you’ve heard of brands like Chameleon Cold-Brew, Nescafe and Nespresso. The brand also has a deal to market, sell and distribute Starbucks coffee globally outside Starbucks stores.
7) Unless you’re Doctor Who, you can’t time-travel back to the 1860s but you can take a virtual tour of Nestlé history that puts you smack dab in the sepia-toned middle of Henri Nestlé’s lab.
8) Four Nestlé products introduced this year came direct from the brains of their employees, thanks to a companywide crowdsourcing initiative that spanned job functions from finance to the factory floor. The idea of a massive company empowering its workers to behave like they’re in a startup? That’s smart. And innovative.
9) Nestlé acquired San Pellegrino and Ralston Purina in the 1990s and Gerber in the 2000s. It also owns DiGiorno Pizza, Purina pet food and the plant-based Awesome Burger.
10) Odds are you have a Nestlé product in your house right now. How do we know? Because at any given moment, 97% of U.S. homes have a Nestlé product sitting inside them.
11) At a moment when we’re still lurching towards gender equality, Nestlé USA proudly reports it has reached 1:1 gender pay equity for employee salaries. Learn more in the company’s first-ever pay equity analysis.
OK, now you’ve got enough knowledge to consider yourself a Nestlé expert. We’ll have a pop quiz on this on Monday.
To learn more about Brand Innovators’ Nestlé-hosted event in Arlington, go here.
