SANTIAGO, CHILE (Commodity Online): Nestle has once again affirmed its intention to bcome a pure food company by opening an R&D Centre for biscuits and ceral-based snacks in Chile and acquiring Kraft Food's frozen pizza operations and at the same time selling its remaining stake in US based eyecare unit Alcon Inc. to Swiss drug maker Novartis AG for $28.1 bn.
With two transactions in the space of two days, Nestlé SA has positioned itself as more of a pure food company, bolstering its presence in an important category in North America and pulling out of the noncore ophthalmology sector. Nestlé said Tuesday it is buying Kraft Foods Inc.'s frozen-pizza operations in the U.S. and Canada, including brands such as DiGiorno and Tombstone, for $3.7 billion in cash, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The new R&D Centre for biscuits lead Nestlé’s global research and development in biscuits and cereal-based snacks, focusing both on innovation and renovation of products. R&D Santiago will bring together specialists from various fields, including nutrition, engineering, product development and quality control. With ingredients such as wholegrain, fruits and nuts, biscuits are part of a healthy balanced diet. The development of new technologies at R&D Santiago will help to further reduce sugar and fat levels to make biscuits lighter, without compromising taste or texture. R&D Santiago will also develop biscuits with bioactive ingredients to improve digestive health as well as fortified products to address local micronutrient deficiencies, thereby adapting biscuits to local tastes and needs.
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"The research at this Centre will provide exciting opportunities for innovation in a very important product category. It will allow us to offer consumers in Latin America and beyond the choice of tasty, healthy, more nutritious biscuits," said Nestlé’s CEO Paul Bulcke at the event. Nestlé’s growing and profitable biscuit business amounted to CHF 1.4 billion in 2008, with 60% of sales achieved in Latin America. Overall, Latin America is an important region for Nestlé, where the Company has been present for many decades and reached sales of CHF 15.5 billion in 2008. In Chile, Nestlé has been present for 76 years, and today has 7 production facilities in different parts of the country. The new centre in Santiago will benefit from synergies between R&D and biscuit manufacturing by being based at Nestlé’s industrial site in Maipú, which employs over 1,200 people.
The Centre will work closely with other Nestlé R&D facilities around the world and will engage in local governmental initiatives and partnerships with universities such as the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the Universidad de Chile. Nestlé’s global R&D network comprises 28 Research, Development and Technology Centres and employs around 5,000 people.Nestlé shares closed at 49.75 francs ($48.31), down 1.20 francs, in Zurich.
