The Nestle Conundrum

There's been a lot of stuff posted on various Facebook pages and internet sites lately about the ordinary citizen's concern that the people in charge of Nestlé  lack a certain amount of empathy about the well-being of the human race when it comes to the distribution of water. According to the CEO of said company water is not a universal right and should be charged for accordingly. Now, I know that we already pay for our water in the UK via the water rates. These payments, according to the voice of Nestlé  reason, fall well short of what we (and everyone else) should be paying for this valuable commodity...sorry this natural resource And as for those people who have the audacity to dig wells for their village to draw water from? Nestlé  would take over the wells, 'manage' them and charge a 'management fee' for it. Well (no pun intended) as is the way with me, I've done a bit of research to help you on your way. A sort of ‘cut-out-and-keep guide’ to all things Nestlé . I can honestly say that I've not knowingly bought a Nestlé product for the past thirty years, not since that company's unpleasantness over powdered baby milk (same as I've not knowingly bought a Shell product since the Ken Saro Wiwa debacle). I trust the information below (which I pass on in the very best interests of humanity) will help you to make informed choices as to your weekly shop and also allow you to see how the spider’s web spreads. What follows is not exhaustive, not meant to be. I can only work with the information available and so there will be omissions, maybe even some wrong-turns, but I hope it'll be a good starting point for your own research and a correction-graph as to your re-provisioning decisions.

Swiss, Austrian and German companies have a large stake in Nestlé. Pelham Investments AG who, through the good offices of the Georg von Opel Investment Company, took over Athris Holding AG who operated the Seiler Hotels in Switzerland as well as the Molino (Restaurants) and Beach Mountain (sports goods and clothing) franchises until the cousins, ​​Christian and Roberto Seiler, bought back the Athris participation of 91.2% and they now operate the company and the Seiler Hotel.

Nestlé total sales in 2003 were 88bn Swiss Francs (£39bn) with a net profit accruing of 6,213m Swiss Francs (£2,7bn). This was a fall on the previous year's figures, Nestlé blamed the higher raw materials prices, expensive energy and packaging materials and poor weather conditions. To obviate this shortfall, Nestlé plans to cut factories and jobs. Considerable resistance to closures by workers across Europe, especially in French and German factories and also in Staverton, Wiltshire where unions and locals have set up a “Staverton must survive” campaign with support from European and international trade union federations. Nestlé are major shareholders in health companies including up until recently, Alcon, who specialise in eye-care products. Liliane de Bettencourt of L'Oréal is a major shareholder in Nestlé, and Nestlé holds a 26.4% stake in L'Oréal - back-scratchers united...

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe was the Nestlé  vice chair and CEO in 2007 and also a member of the Board of The Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum and our own, dear Lord Simpson of Dunkeld is also a board member. Ex and serving politicians also figure on the board and the list of Nestlé involvement in food and drinks policy-making and operation is vast as is their involvement with other manufacturers – Coca-Cola, General Mills, L’Oreal, Dairy Partners America… I quote from a descriptive site for Nestlé , not an anti-company one, just one that gives information –

Such partnerships between huge corporations are an interesting feature of an economic system which is said to take competition as one of its defining features. In reality, apparent competitors work very closely together to ensure their common interests are pursued.

Now onto things UK-ish. Should you want to pursue things global: -
Nestlé  Holdings (UK) plc

Nestlé UK Ltd

St. George's House
Croydon
CR9 1NR
Telephone: +44 (0)20 8686 3333

Consumer Services: 00800 63785385
Direct Fax: +44 -1904 603461

Nestlé's UK head of legal is Isabelle Deschamps who also has ties to Unilever.

Fiona Kendrick is Head of Strategic Business Unit for Nestlé' Beverages UK and was made a dame in 2015.

Graham Millar is Executive Director of Nestlé' UK Ltd and he is heavily involved in the Joseph Rowntree Trust who have an excellent record in social housing and tackling poverty world-wide.

You will also find that, after successive searches for information on the aforementioned company, the web pages become unavailable…paranoid? Me? Nope, just ask that bloke who keeps following me.

Right, you have to understand that this is not an easy ride, OK? I now offer you a list of Nestlé branded products for sale in the UK: (and this is only a selection of the brands we will all have come into contact with during our daily shop in the UK, it’s not meant to be exhaustive). You are, however, asked to be on your guard as companies, brands and products are traded and swapped with monotonous regularity.

Breakfast Products:
Cheerios
Chocapic

Cini Minis

Clusters
Cookie Crisp
Crunch

Curiously Cinnamon

Curiously Strawberry

Fitnesse

Force Flakes

Gold Flakes
Golden Grahams
Golden Nuggets
Honey Stars
Koko Krunch
Lion Cereal
Milo (cereal)
Nesquick Cereal
Nestle Corn Flakes
Shreddies 

Drinks:

Nescafe Coffee

Mountain Blend Coffee

Milo Coffee

Buxton Water

Aberfoyle

San Pellegrino

Stop your whinging! No-one said it was going to be easy……

Vittel

Carnation

Libby’s

Fussel’s

Nesquick

Ovaltine

Nestea

Coffee Mate

Alta Rico

Black Gold

Blend 37

Cappuccino

Decaf

Espresso

Fine blend

Gold Blend

Kenjara

Chilled and Assorted Goods:

Ski

Munch Bunch

Memory Lane Cakes

Nespresso

Mivvi

Nestle Ice Cream

Nesvita Nutrition Drinks

Neston Nutrition Drinks

Carnation Instant Breakfast

Compleat

Optifast

Buitoni Seasoning

Maggi Seasoning

Lean Cuisine Frozen Food

Buitoni Frozen Food

Jenny Craig

Hot Pockets

Jack’s Pizza

Wagner Pizza

Buitoni Refrigerated Food

Nestle Refrigerated Food

Katie’s Pizza

Chocolate:

Aero

After Eight

Animal Bar

Caramac

Drifter

Frigor

Milky Bar

Lion

Kit-Kat

Matchmakers

Munchies

Nestle Crunch (and all varieties thereof)

Peppermint Crisp

Quality Street

Rolo

Polo

Black Magic

Blue Riband

Dairy Box

Toffo

Nestle/Rowntree:

Jellies

Fruit Pastilles

Jelly Tots

Pick & Mix

Randoms

Fruit Gums

Tooty Frooties

Juicy Jellies

Smarties

Toffee Crisp

Walnut Whip

Yorkie

All Wonka Brands

Still feel like cutting them off your shopping list?

Pet Foods:

Felix Cat Food

Friskies

Go Cat

Go Dog

Butchers

Bakers

….and candlestick makers….

Winalot

Gourmet

Pro-Plan

Purina

Luda Pet Foods

Paragon Petcare

Spillers

Cosmetics:

Biotherm

Body Shop

Garnier

Helena Rubenstein

Lancome

L’Oreal

Maybelline

Plenitude

Redken

Matrix

Baby Milk/Foods:

Beba Baby Food

Gerber Baby Food

Neslac

Nestle Good Start

Starter Infant Formula

Nan

Lactogen

And saving the best ‘til last, they are the manufacturers and purveyors of Perrier Water and by that end were the sole funder of the various Perrier Awards, particularly the one that was held in Edinburgh where all those right-on, committed, stand-up comedians vied for the top slot and moolah that goes with it.

Bless.

Sleep Tight.

X!