Sees PH top in Asean turnover
Nestlé is investing an average of P2 billion a year in various projects in the Philippines from 2025 to 2027, company officials said, describing the country as an important market for the Swiss brand.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Nestlé said it is investing a total of P18.1 billion in the Philippines from 2019 to 2027 and P11 billion has so far been spent between 2019 and 2024. The remaining P7.1 billion will be spent in 2025 to 2027.
“We have been always sustaining our investments in the Philippines. Over the last few years, and a few years moving forward is a constant investment of P2 billion every year,” Nestlé Philippines Chairman and CEO Kais Marzouki said at the company’s Campus Wellness event in Taguig Integrated School on Tuesday.
In the same event, Laurent Freive, Nestle’s global chief executive officer, told reporters the Philippines currently ranks sixth in terms of its global turnover, and number one in Asean.
The Swiss manufacturing company sells its products in 188 countries, information on its website said.
Marzouki said the company’s 2023 revenues from the Philippines stood at P169 billion. He declined to give comparative figures but said the local unit has been growing “5 percent the past years.”
Financial results for 2024 have yet to be released, Marzouki said.
“All our factories need to be upgraded constantly and that’s really what our investments are about,” he added.
Ninety-seven percent of Nestlé products sold in the Philippines are locally produced.
The company now has four manufacturing facilities in the Philippines located in Cabuyao, Laguna; Cagayan de Oro; and Lipa and Tanauan both in Batangas.
Marzouki said the Philippines is “one of the most promising markets in terms of economic growth.”
The Philippines is also a big emerging country in terms of population where Nestlé has been operating for more than 110 years, Freive said.
“It’s a land of opportunities. As I could see, it’s a land of great ambitions as well, great programs, big impact. So I’m very pleased to see that in action,” he added.
Nestlé considers its unique position in the sense that it is also engaged in agriculture, but is also involved in production, manufacturing, distribution and marketing.
Since 2012, Nestlé and the Department of Education (DepEd) have been running the Nestlé Wellness Campus to teach public school kids and parents sound nutrition and proper health habits.
The program, incorporated into school curricula, reaches millions of students in the first to 10th grades.
Marzouki said the program currently covers 26,000 schools in eight regions.
“The idea is to cover, eventually, all the regions in the Philippines and to have a big impact,” Marzouki said.
