Maggi Maker Nestle Plans To Invest Rs 5,000 Crore In India By 2025, Says CEO Mark Schneider

Global FMCG sector giant Nestle, which houses popular brands and products including KitKat, Nescafe coffee, Maggi, etc., plans to invest a mammoth amount of Rs 5,000 crore in India by the year 2025, its CEO Mark Schneider recently said.

The move will help the company accelerate its core business in the country and leverage new opportunities for growth.

The investment would be in capex (capital expenditure), setting up new plants, acquisitions and expansion of the product portfolio of Nestle, which currently operates 9 plants across India, is also looking at new locations to set up manufacturing capacity, as per an ET report.

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The investment, which would be subject to clearances and approvals, will also help in creating more job opportunities in the domestic market.

Sharing the investment plans of the Indian market, which is among Nestle's top 10 markets, CEO Schneider in a media round table on Friday said that the Swiss food & beverage company has an investment plan of Rs 5,000 crore by 2025.

"When you look into the investment in this country and the investment plan through 2025, we are talking about Rs 5,000 crore and that compares to Rs 8,000 crore over the last 60 years when we started manufacturing in this country," Nestle CEO said.

Nestle is present in India for over 110 years but started its manufacturing activity in the early 1960s, he added, further mentioning that "In 1961, we started our first manufacturing site and so in that whole time period it has been Rs 8,000 crore and now in the next three years, it will be ?5,000 crore."

This investment is not only for accelerating and ramping up capex alone but also goes into a whole lot of development works, brand building and meaningful contributions on the ground, CEO Schneider said.

Nestle India's revenue in 2021 reportedly stood at Rs 14,709.41 crore. Nestle had last invested about Rs 700 crore to open its plant at Sanand in Gujarat to manufacture a range of popular instant noodles Maggi.

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CEO further said Nestle India's business has maintained "consistency at very high levels" for 22 quarters, which is "outstanding" and "truly stunning" and is a complete willingness for "open chequebook" support every step of the way.

He also added, ¡°If we see interesting opportunities for M&A (merger and acquisitions), we will be very happy to explore those."

Nestle India Chairman¡¯s Statement

Nestle India Chairman and Managing Director Suresh Narayanan said that accelerating the core business of the company would be a focus area, as per the report.

"It is definitely a highly accelerated plan that we are looking at. This has three pivots such as continuing the strong momentum of growths that the company has in last 22 quarters," he added.

The second part is to do it sustainably, and Nestle took "significant steps" in that direction.

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"And the third part is really to leverage new opportunities for growth, whether it is plant-based proteins, healthy ageing, healthy snacking, leveraging some of the Indian grains into products for the company," Mr. Narayanan said, as per ET.

When asked about the investment and capacities details segment-wise, Mr. Narayanan said: "It is going to be secular across categories. It is not going to be in particular categories." However, he also added, "probably we are looking at new locations for factories as well. It could be a big part of the ambition that has as a company." Nestle India presently operates 9 factories employing roughly 6,000 people.

"The ambition to invest Rs 5,000 crore would have a significant increase in direct and indirect employment as well," he added.

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