Nestlé Portugal achieved total sales of €500 million in 2018, representing organic growth of 3.2%.
Coffee (Nespresso, Nescafé, Nescafé Dolce Gusto, Buondi and Sical), Purina Petcare, Infant Nutrition and Confectionery were the businesses with the greatest contribution to the company’s overall organic growth.
Significantly, 8% of sales were the result of innovation, up 38.8% on the previous year.
The company is targeting organic growth of 3% to 4% for 2019 in all market categories, a figure above the market average.
Infrastructure Investment
Nestlé Portugal invested over €19 million in its plants in Porto and Avanca last year, as part of a 20-month total investment plan worth over €40 million, with the aim of ensuring product innovation and production efficiency.
The Avanca plant saw an upgrade of the production line for cereal beverages and an increase in capacity, as well as support for innovative concepts in Child Nutrition. In Porto, the company enhanced production of its Nescafé Roast & Ground coffee products.
Nestlé Portugal concentrated 71% of its purchases on domestic suppliers (over 1,000), for a total value of €119 million.
Last year, Nestlé Portugal invested more than €50 million in marketing activities, including traditional media, digital media and consumer promotions.
Environmental Focus
The company is continuously working to reduce the environmental impact of its operations. In 2018, it reduced water withdrawal by 2.3%, energy consumption by 12.7%, CO2 emissions by 19% and achieved the target of zero waste sent to landfill at all plants.
In line with its commitment that all product packaging should be 100% recyclable or reusable by 2025, from January 2019, all the sticks it issues for stirring coffee are longer made of plastic but of wood.
Tests are underway on 100% recyclable bags for the packaging of children's nutrition products and new packaging materials for Nesquik chocolate milk. In addition, tests are underway on two new 100% recyclable structures for coffee packaging (beans and ground coffee) for the home.
Nestlé Portugal plans to complete the expansion and modernisation of the Avanca Distribution Centre in the third quarter of this year, as part of a €5 million investment. This will allow the company to concentrate all cargo management in Avanca, reducing transfers between logistics warehouses, and in turn reducing the environmental footprint of its products.
As a result of product reformulation during the period 2013-2017, Nestlé withdrew 2,750 tonnes of sugar from the market, equal to 687 million teaspoons or 11 billion kCal.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
