Bringing Innovation Closer to the Consumer

Innovation is part of the 雀巢 DNA: our company was born of a single game-changing product: Henri Nestlé’s Farine Lactée. Innovation is critical to the future of our business, because without innovation there is no growth project.

True innovation is bigger, bolder, better. It must improve the life of consumers through real benefits, contribute to incremental growth while at the same time be more sustainable

Latin America has a fertile ground for innovation. Consumers are open and curious, as illustrated with the successful launch of our new Nescafé Dolce Gusto NEO sustainable system in Brazil. This is not one innovation but three — cutting edge technology, enhanced taste experience and compostable pods — which is gaining tremendous traction in the market.

Our NEO paper-based pods can be produced in our factory in Montes Claros, Brazil, because LATAM, with its ever-improving production and manufacturing systems already has the “hardware” for innovation

Nestlé is helping to create the necessary “software,” which is the capacity to create, to innovate. This is why we opened a new Research & Development (R&D) Center for Latin America last year.

Our R&D Center brings Nestle’s innovation capabilities closer to our consumers, to create the products they really want. It also taps into the young, vibrant, and dynamic innovation ecosystem, connecting with the academia, start-ups, allowing them to scale and test their ideas in real-market conditions.

This value delivery flows in two directions. We are on the one handcreating capacity for Nestlé to better serve our Latin American consumers, and on the other hand, I am confident that the products we create will also travel outwards, sending unique Latin American innovations to the rest of the world.

Take coffee: The three points of the golden triangle reside in the region: green coffee production, coffee manufacturing and coffee consumption.

In this context, we are innovating everywhere: in solutions like NEO, but also in the fields. Through the Nescafé plan, we are helping farmers to grow low-carbon, high-yield coffee. A breakthrough that will inevitably affect the global coffee industry.

?This is good for Nestlé, but it’s also good for the region. The end result will be a stronger Latin American innovation landscape.

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." Steve Jobs