Letter to our shareholders

Nutrition is essential to life. Good food provides energy, enhances health and brings enjoyment. Yet, because of economic pressures, extreme weather events, supply disruptions and other challenges, many people around the world are struggling to obtain good nutrition. Our company is dedicated to doing its part to help create sustainable, resilient food systems so that people everywhere have access to affordable, good food – today and tomorrow.

With a broad portfolio of products that touch people’s lives at every stage, during every moment of the day, Nestlé holds a unique opportunity with consumers. From pre-conception and pregnancy to infancy and early childhood through to adulthood and old age, we offer nutrition, health and wellness products for everyone, ranging from Materna prenatal support for women to Yiyang functional milk for healthy longevity. We provide beloved beverages to people of all ages, such as Nido growing-up milks, Milo for active children and Nescafé for busy adults. And for those cherished cats and dogs, our Purina business aims to maximize every joyful moment.

Setting clear priorities

Throughout our more than 150-year history, we have remained true to our purpose and values, even as we evolve to address changing consumer needs and new challenges. Moving forward, Nestlé aims to reinforce its position as a dependable, reliable company that consistently creates value for all stakeholders. Our top priorities are increasing consumer and customer preference for our products and expanding our market share.

To achieve these goals, we must make consumer-focused investments in our business. We strive to create efficiencies to fund those investments that enable us to succeed in the marketplace, thereby driving profitable growth. We call this continuous process the Nestlé Virtuous Circle. Our focus is execution excellence and, to that end, we prioritize quality, safety, simplicity, speed and agility.

Playing to our strengths

Nestlé has unparalleled strengths, with our iconic brands, global presence, unmatched local knowledge, unique in-market execution capabilities, R&D expertise and exceptional people. Our portfolio is balanced by different categories that appeal to broad populations. We consistently assess our portfolio against consumer preferences, making investments accordingly.

Our decentralized structure means we have deep local expertise. With short, integrated supply chains, we are close to consumers, our partners and the farmers that provide our raw materials. Our leaner Executive Board structure will increase simplicity, speed up decision-making and strengthen the momentum behind global initiatives, as we build on the strengths of our people for consistent in-market execution.

Investing in innovation

Our global R&D network powers Nestlé’s innovation ecosystem – the most advanced science and innovation network in the food and beverage industry. We have over 4000 employees working across 23 sites globally and invest over CHF 1.7 billion annually as an engine for growth.

Through our investments, we prioritize the most promising innovation efforts. With select consumer-centric global launches each year, we aim for multi-market scaling and excellence in execution to advance growth. We expect half of our growth in the next couple of years to come from impactful innovations and renovations.

Transforming for continued performance

As we perform, we also aim to transform to ensure our long-term success. We are accelerating our end-to-end digital transformation to become an intelligent, AI-powered company, seamlessly connected from farm to fork. We already have a strong data backbone with global reach that we are streamlining for real-time data that supports planning for our entire enterprise.

To support long-term sustainability, we continue our journey towards achieving net zero emissions while being mindful of natural resources, nature and biodiversity. We support farmers in transitioning to regenerative agricultural practices that help improve their resilience and livelihoods, while protecting the supply of raw materials. Consumers expect this from us, and we aim to better communicate our work to them to gain a competitive advantage.

Strengthening our foundational capabilities

Moving forward, we strive to set clear priorities and achieve strong goal alignment across Nestlé. We are articulating these priorities and a distinct vision for brand investment, ensuring that every part of our business can thrive and reach its full potential. We remain focused on outcompeting rivals at every step of the value chain – from product quality to taste preference to consumer engagement – leveraging our unique in-market execution capabilities.

Our long-term value creation model guided by operational efficiency, smart resource allocation and continuous investment has served us well for over 150 years. We are confident that it will continue to serve us as we move forward. We are grateful for the support of our employees, business partners, consumers and communities. And we thank you, our shareholders, for your continued trust.