ShareAction is a UK-based NGO that is lobbying Nestlé to change our portfolio strategy. It has filed a shareholder proposal to push this agenda at our Annual General Meeting. Nestlé has been constructively engaging with this group. We have set an ambitious sales growth target for the more nutritious part of our portfolio announced in September 2023. We share the common goal of increasing the availability of more nutritious foods for consumers around the world, but we disagree on some key points.
A message from Nestlé's Chairman, Paul Bulcke, about Nestlé’s nutrition strategy in response to ShareAction's proposal.
Specifically:
- We disagree with ShareAction’s point of view on our portfolio. People can enjoy indulgent products in moderation, and there is nothing wrong with that.
- We disagree with its view that coffee and specialized nutrition should not be included in the more nutritious segment of our portfolio. The health benefits of both categories are recognized externally, which is why it is appropriate to include them.
- We disagree with ShareAction's call for Nestlé to set targets to increase the proportion of our sales from the more nutritious segment, as this would require us to weaken other parts of our portfolio, creating opportunities for competitors without yielding public health benefits.
ShareAction’s assertion that three-quarters of our sales come from unhealthy products is flat-out wrong: our transparent reporting shows that nearly 60% of our sales (minus PetCare) come from more nutritious or specialized nutrition products. Only 21% of our portfolio is in indulgent categories.
Nestlé aims for growth in all our categories, while encouraging balanced consumption. This is the core of our Good for You strategy. Good for You enables us to continue to grow our business, bringing value to our shareholders and the communities we serve. The proposal from ShareAction would disrupt this approach which is why it needs to be rejected.
What is needed are efforts to help move the whole industry towards greater transparency with targets to grow the sales of more nutritious foods. ShareAction is targeting the wrong company. We are already moving. More would be accomplished by asking other food and beverage companies to do the same.
For Nestlé, we now put our focus on working to achieve our target, not changing it. A debate about whether the target has been set correctly is not useful at this time.
What is Nestlé doing to support balanced diets?
As the Good food, Good life company, Nestlé enables people to eat well, providing a diverse portfolio of products while guiding them towards balanced consumption. Nutrition, Health and Wellness is our past, present and future. We have been working for many years to evolve our portfolio, reformulate our products and innovate. At the same time, we have been strengthening our responsible marketing practices.
Building on the strong nutrition foundations of the company, Nestlé has a role to play, along with others, in supporting public health goals, and remains committed to doing so. This is why Nestlé was the first food and beverage company to provide transparency on the nutritional value of its entire portfolio, covering products for all life stages and occasions.
Six months ago, we set an ambitious, timebound, absolute target, based on a government approved nutrition profiling system, to increase the sales of our more nutritious products by CHF 20-25 billion by 2030. By setting this absolute target at the top end of our growth range we are making clear the scale of our ambition to grow the more nutritious segment of the portfolio. This approach is best for our business, for our investors and for public health.
