Global food & beverage conglomerate Nestle SA plans to invest Rs 5,000 crore in India in the next three-anda-half years, its CEO Mark Schneider said on Friday. The move will help the company to accelerate its core business in the country and leverage new opportunities for growth.
The investment would be on capex (capital expenditure), setting up new plants, acquisitions and expansion of the product portfolio of the company. Nestle, which currently operates nine plants across India, is also looking at new locations to set up manufacturing capacity.
The investment, which would be subject to clearances and approvals, will also help in creating more job opportunities in the domestic market. Sharing the investment plans of the Indian market, which is among Nestle’s top 10 markets, Schneider in a media round table said the Swiss food and beverage company has an investment plan of Rs 5,000 crore through 2025.
“When you look into the investment in this country and the plan through 2025, we are talking about Rs 5,000 crore and that compares to Rs 8,000 crore over the last 60 years when we started manufacturing in this country,” he said.
Nestle is present in India for over 110 years but started its manufacturing activity in the early 1960s, he added. “In 1961, we started our first manufacturing site and so in that whole time period it has been Rs 8,000 crore and now in the next three years, it will be Rs 5,000 crore,” he said.
This investment is not only for accelerating and ramping up capex alone but also goes into brand building and meaningful contributions on the ground, Schneider said. Nestlé India chairman and managing director Suresh Narayanan said accelerating the core business of the company would be a focus area.
“It is definitely a highly accelerated plan that we are looking at. This has three pivots such as continuing the strong momentum of growth that the company has in last 22 quarters,” he said adding. The second part is do it sustainably. “And the third part is really to leverage new opportunities for growth,” Narayanan said.
