Nestle rooted in TT

Over a century since its introduction to the local food and beverage industry, Swiss giant Nestle continues to cement its footing in the TT and Caribbean market, with the multi-million-dollar investment in state-of-the-art machinery to manufacture dozens of newly launched products.

Nestle's recent innovations, most of which are marketed to a modern, health-conscious lifestyle, has been endorsed by Minister of Trade Paula Gopee-Scoon, who along with members of the media, TT Manufacturers Association and other stakeholders, took a tour last month of the company's vast Valsayn factory.

The Valsayn plant, a medium-scale facility, manufactures and supplies dozens of milk-based, juice, juice-drink products and other goods to 23 countries and territories in the region, employing a considerable local work force.

Head of marketing for Nestle in the Anglo-Dutch Caribbean, Patricio Torres, presented an overview of the company's local performance prior to the tour of the facility.

Torres first dismissed rumours which began circulating recently about Nestle potentially closing its TT plant.

"I read some social news (posts) one, two months ago about (Nestle) closing the factory," said the Chilean, who became the regional marketing boss for Nestlé in mid-2017.

"This is really not the truth. You are not leaving the country if you're investing, huh? And we are investing."

"You will see in the factory; we have done investment recently and it really proves that we are determined to succeed in the country and in the region.

"We are not static (despite an ongoing recession). We do not want to depend 100 per cent on the economic situation. We want to go beyond... We need to overcome the market. We need to increase market share and it's in our hands," he said, adding that the company does experience challenges but is always improving its marketing and production strategies.

"So that is totally fake news," he said.

However, there are variables which make the region one of the most complex in the world despite it being a medium-scale market and considerably smaller than other regions in the Americas. ,

"You need to fulfil consumer needs in all those territories. (The market may) be doing well in 21 territories but then you have two territories (not doing well) and you cannot achieve the numbers.

Torres said Nestle takes its corporate social responsibility seriously for its own good and the good of the country, focusing especially on important matters such as youth and employment.

"My mission," Torres said, "with the co-operation of the government, the chambers (of commerce) – because we believe we are adding value to society – I believe people are interested that we (remain in TT) ... for another 100 years. That is the objective."

"How are we foreseeing that?" he continued. "You cannot base the future of your company only by selling products or by increasing market share. This is a very, very short-term approach. The consumer will not buy our products if we are not responsible, if we are not adding value to society.

Nestle's YOUth Initiative, which started in 2015, has benefited several thousand young people between the ages of 16-30, through employment, internship programmes and training.

Gopee-Scoon, after the tour, said she was impressed with Nestle's investments in machinery, the nutritional quality of the recently launched juices and other beverages, its employment rates and the health and safety standards at the factory.

"We saw the new equipment and I’m particularly impressed by the palletiser and it is doing the job of several people, packing et cetera," Gopee-Scoon said of the $1.5 million piece of equipment, which stacks the boxed cartons quickly and neatly for shipment.

The minister was particularly excited about Nestle's Orchard Fruit & Veggie 100% Juice, launched in July, and described it as a great-tasting, high-quality product, fit for a modern, health-conscious lifestyle.

"These nutritious products are what we should be focusing on and introducing to the public," the minister said. The fruit drinks are different to the fruit juices as the former contains added sugar and other ingredients, while its fruit juices contain no added ingredients, other than natural flavours from a particular fruit or fruits.”

One issue, she noted, was a lack of local produce in the juice and milk-based products.

"A lot of input into the nutritious products come from the outside. So that all of the fruit mashes and vegetable purees and so on are external to Trinidad and external to the region."

This, however, presents opportunities for local farmers to take advantage of tax-relief offered by Government and begin farming quality fruits and vegetables. It also provides an opportunity for daily farmers, who previously supplied a fraction of the facility's milk, to get back on board.

Gopee-Scoon said, "As you would know, in the last budget in particular, in addition to all of the incentives that we have we actually brought the taxation for farmers down to zero."