A case study on Nestlé

Nestlé - Good Food Good Life?

Nestlé is the biggest food company in the world. It consists of many different trade marks that produce all different kinds of food, who all keep their own names and don't reveal that they are a part of Nestlé.

Nestlé employs about 280 000 people all over the world and has a yearly income of about USD 119 billion. Only in Central West Africa they earn about UDS one billion a year.¹²

And Nestlé keeps extending it's influence -both: in the parts of the world and on the foodmarket by producing more and more goods. By doing so they cleverly eliminate any kind of concurrence. As a monopole they have influence on the politics and also on the prices. If one company becomes a monopole there is nothing that regulates the market and the prices, which has an extreme impact on peoples' lives. Especially on the poor.

People also become dependent on these big companies like Nestlé because of the high number of jobs they offer and control. They also bring a lot of money to each country they operate in because they pay fees and taxes, they build infrastructure and take part in their economic growth.

But apart from the bones of contention that come along with big companies, Nestlé does not even pay attention to human rights adequatly.

Again and again they attract attantion because of problems like abusive childlabour on their cocoa plantations or exploiting the free acces to water. They tap public springs for their expensively sold bottle water. Those people who earlier had free access to water now have to buy the same water from Nestlé. And it also causes huge problems for the local farmers who now don't have enough water anymore to grow their plants.³

Nestlé knows about that reputation and finally reacts.

The first thing that pops up if you enter the Nestlé website is the information that Nestlé now commits itself to a partnership with FLA (Fair Labour Association).

The FLA states about that:

“Working with the FLA will help Nestlé and other stakeholders in West Africa to protect children in the cocoa supply chain, but eliminating child labor will take an enormous commitment from Nestlé and other companies sourcing from the region. This project is a step in the right direction, but the real test will be in whether issues uncovered in the investigation are addressed promptly and in a lasting manner.“⁴

This example shows that their reputation is the most important criteria for selling. Thus creating awareness on what happens is our job. As soon as a company looses it's good reputation it will start acting into the right direction.

1Nestlé Website: http://www.nestle.com/AboutUs/Pages/AboutUs.aspx

2Nestlé Website CWA: http://www.nestle-cwa.com/en/aboutus/Pages/aboutus.aspx

3Greenpeace magazine Germany:

http://www.greenpeace-magazin.de/index.php?id=2666&no_cache=1&sword_list%5B%5D=nestl%C3%A9

4 FLA Website:

http://www.fairlabor.org/fla/Public/pub/Images_XFile/R506/FLA_Nestle_Advisory_Nov28.pdf