Nestlé headquarter

Nestlé SA, multinational manufacturer of food products. It is headquartered in

Vevey, Switzerland, and operates factories in more than 80 countries. Nestlé’s
chief products are condensed and powdered milk, baby foods, chocolate products,
candies, instant coffees and teas, soups, seasonings and condiments, frozen foods,
ice cream, and bottled water. The company also produces pharmaceuticals.

The company dates to 1866, when two separate Swiss enterprises were founded
that would later form the core of Nestlé. In August of that year, Charles A. Page
and George Page, brothers from the United States, established the Anglo-Swiss
Condensed Milk Company in Cham, Switzerland. In September, in nearby
Vevey, Henri Nestlé developed a milk-based baby food and soon began
marketing it. In the succeeding decades both enterprises aggressively expanded
their businesses throughout Europe and the United States. (Henri Nestlé retired
in 1875, but the company, under new ownership, retained his name as Farine
Lactée Henri Nestlé.) In 1877 Anglo-Swiss added milk-based baby foods to its
products, and in the following year the Nestlé company added condensed milk,
so that the firms became direct and fierce rivals.

In 1905, however, the companies merged to become the Nestlé and Anglo-Swiss
Condensed Milk Company, retaining that name until 1947, when the name Nestlé
Alimentana SA was taken as a result of the acquisition of Fabrique de Produits
Maggi SA (founded 1884) and its holding company, Alimentana SA of Kempttal,
Switzerland. Maggi was a major manufacturer of soup mixes and related
foodstuffs. The company’s current name was adopted in 1977.

From the beginning of the 20th century the Nestlé company began diversifying.
In 1904 it bought chocolate rights that would eventually result in products under
the Peter, Kohler, Nestlé, and Cailler brands. In 1927 it acquired rights from the
cheese makers Gerber & Company AG. In 1937 the company invented instant
coffee, which it began producing under the name Nescafé the following year. In
1960 it acquired control of Crosse & Blackwell (founded 1830) and affiliated
companies in Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, the United States, and
elsewhere. Nestlé’s bottled-water division was created through the purchase of
European brands such as Vittel (1987), Perrier (1992), and Sanpellegrino (1998).
The many acquisitions of U.S. food companies have included Libby, McNeill &
Libby (1970), the Stouffer Corporation (1973), and one of America’s largest food
companies, the Carnation Company (1985). In 2002 Nestlé’s purchase of Ralston
Purina created a new division, Nestlé Purina PetCare, while Nestlé’s American
ice cream businesses were consolidated under the Dreyer’s brand. Chef America,
Inc., a frozen-food company, was also purchased in 2002. In 2007 the company
added the milk-flavouring product known as Ovaltine to its product line. The
company also entered the frozen-pizza market in 2010 by purchasing Kraft
Foods’ frozen-pizza business in the U.S. and Canada for $3.7 billion.

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Over the years, Nestlé came under scrutiny for some of its business practices. In
July 1977 a boycott was started in the United States against the company’s
products, because of Nestlé’s advertising of its infant-formula baby food to
mothers as an alternative to breast-feeding, particularly in less-developed
countries. The boycotters criticized the advertising as aggressive and claimed that
the use of infant formula resulted in health problems and deaths among infants;
led by such groups as World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) and
Save the Children, the boycott later spread to Europe and beyond. Nestlé was also
targeted by lawsuits from the International Labor Rights Forum and anti-child-
labour activists for alleged child-labour practices on its cocoa farms in Côte
d’Ivoire. In 2013 Nestlé Canada, two of its former executives, a competitor, and
a distributor were charged with allegedly fixing the price of chocolate; the charges
followed a multiyear investigation by the Canadian Competition Bureau that also
resulted in a $23 million settlement paid by Nestlé Canada and other chocolate
producers.