Nestl� S.A.[a] (/ˈnɛsleɪ, -li, -əl/ NESS-lay, -⁠lee, -⁠əl[6]) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 2014.[7][8][9] It ranked No. 64 on the Fortune Global 500 in 2017.[10] In 2023, the company was ranked 50th in the Forbes Global 2000.[11]

Nestl�'s products include coffee and tea, candy and confectionery, bottled water, infant formula and baby food, dairy products and ice cream, frozen foods, breakfast cereals, dry packaged foods and snacks, pet foods, and medical food. Twenty-nine of Nestl�'s brands have annual sales of over 1 billion CHF (about US$1.1 billion),[12] including Nespresso, Nescaf�, Nestea, Kit Kat, Smarties, Nesquik, Stouffer Corporation, Vittel, and Maggi. As of 2024, Nestl� has 337 factories, operates in 185 countries, and employs around 277,000 people.[13] It is one of the main shareholders of L'Oreal, the world's largest cosmetics company.[14]

Nestl� was formed in 1905 by the merger of Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company, which was established in 1866 by brothers George Ham Page and Charles Page, and "Farine Lact�e Henri Nestl�" founded in 1867 by Henri Nestl�.[15] The company grew significantly during World War I and again following World War II, expanding its offerings beyond its early condensed milk and infant formula products. The company has made a number of corporate acquisitions including Findus in 1963, Libby's in 1971, Rowntree Mackintosh in 1988, Klim in 1998, and Gerber in 2007.

Nestl� has faced longstanding criticism over its business practices. The company's promotion of infant formula in developing countries sparked a boycott in the 1970s for discouraging breastfeeding. It has also been accused of benefiting from child labor, forced labor, and deforestation in West African cocoa production. Nestl� has been fined for price-fixing cartels in Spain and Canada, and environmental groups criticize its water practices, alleging over-extraction in vulnerable regions and restrictions on access to clean water.

History

1866�1900: Founding and early years

Henri Nestl� (1814�1890), a German-born Swiss confectioner, was the founder of Nestl� and one of the main creators of condensed milk.

Nestl�'s origin dates back to the 1860s when two separate Swiss enterprises were founded that would later form Nestl�. In the following decades, the two competing enterprises expanded their businesses throughout Europe and the United States.[16]

Timeline

• 1866: Charles Page (US consul to Switzerland) and George Ham Page, brothers from Lee County, Illinois established the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company in Cham, Switzerland. The company's first British operation was opened at Chippenham, Wiltshire in 1873.[17][18]
• 1867: In Vevey, Switzerland, Henri Nestl� developed milk-based baby food and soon began marketing it. The following year, Daniel Peter began seven years of work perfecting the milk chocolate manufacturing process. Nestl� had the solution Peter needed to fix his problem of removing all the water from the milk added to his chocolate, thus preventing the product from developing mildew.
• 1875: Henri Nestl� retired; the company, under new ownership, retained his name as Soci�t� Farine Lact�e Henri Nestl�.[citation needed][19]
• 1877: Anglo-Swiss added milk-based baby foods to its products; in the following year, the Nestl� Company added condensed milk to its portfolio, which made the firms direct rivals.
• 1879: Nestl� merged with milk chocolate inventor Daniel Peter.[20]
• 1890: Henri Nestl� died.

1901�1989: Mergers

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Henri Nestl� and his successors participated in the development of the chocolate industry in Switzerland, together with the Peter, Kohler, and Cailler families.[21] In 1904, Daniel Peter and Charles-Am�d�e Kohler (son of Charles-Am�d�e Kohler who founded a chocolate factory in 1830) became partners and founded the Soci�t� g�n�rale suisse des chocolats Peter et Kohler r�unis. In 1911, the company created by Peter and Kohler merged with Cailler.[22] Alexandre Cailler (grandson of Fran�ois-Louis Cailler) had founded a chocolate factory in Broc in 1898, still used by Nestl� today; which enabled the production of milk chocolate on a large scale. In 1929, Peter, Cailler, Kohler, Chocolats Suisses finally merged with the Nestl� group.[23][24] An earlier alliance in 1904 between Peter and Nestl� also allowed the production of milk chocolate in the United States, at the Fulton plant.[25]

In 1905, Nestl� and Anglo-Swiss merged to become the Nestl� and Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company, retaining that name until 1947 when the name 'Nestl� Alimentana SA' was taken as a result of the acquisition of Fabrique de Produits Maggi SA (founded 1884) and its holding company, Alimentana SA, of Kempttal, Switzerland. The company's current name was adopted in 1977. By the early 1900s, the company was operating factories in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain.[26] The First World War created a demand for dairy products in the form of government contracts, and by the end of the war, Nestl�'s production had more than doubled.[citation needed]