We proudly support People of Ukraine!

After 21 weeks of a full-scale war in Ukraine, which has brought heart-breaking, unimaginable human suffering, I would like to share my reflection on what Nestlé has done so far to support people of Ukraine and how our team has been going through these difficult times.

I would like to use this opportunity to express once again my full condemnation for the Russian army aggression to democratic and free Ukraine. Let me firstly say that the Russian Army to Ukraine is an aggression to a free Country and Nation that has chosen a path of democracy, modernity and freedom. In 21st century in the heart of Europe nobody could imagine one morning to be awaken by the horrible and deadly noise of missile attacks. Despite having generated Safety and Business Continuity Plans, it was impossible to prepare for a war of such extended impact in terms of lives and people suffering. At the same time being one of the world biggest food producers we have took ownership and responsibility to fulfil our mission to provide people with high quality and nutritious food. In a matter of hours thousands of Ukrainians lost access to food, and emergency aid in form of food donations became a reinforcement of our purpose.

Immediate response

In the first days we had to learn by doing how to find the best set up of emergency aid, which should address the most critical needs with the largest scale, extremely fast. The communication inside the team has never been so close, we were in connection 24/7 to identify the needs and establish connections. Within a week we have shaped the approach and started to provide food donations in cooperation with our distributors, trusted NGOs, volunteering organizations and government. This time we needed also to organize logistics, which was the main challenge as many territories of the country were under shelling.

I was impressed by outstanding response of Nestlé Group in the first days of full-scale war. Nestlé in other countries reached us proactively being ready to organize any kind of help, we even didn’t have to ask. Taking a step away from emotions, I would like to highlight the scale of our solidarity actions. Due to our joint efforts within Nestlé we have already donated more than 3000 tons of products worth 9 million CHF to support Ukrainians both within the country and in neighboring countries where Ukrainian refugees are staying. Speaking in pragmatic figures this size of donations equals 2 portions of food per each of Ukrainian citizen, which of course seems to be a drop in the ocean, but to ensure high impact of our efforts we provide humanitarian assistance to those who need it most and will continue to do so.

Work in a new reality

Within the first week we have restarted operations of two of our factories in Ukraine – Lviv confectionery factory and cold souses factory in Volyn. This was important step to continue shipment of humanitarian aid for all people in need and also keep shelves stocked to sustainably provide Ukrainians with nutritious food, which was in high demand.

For the first time in 25 years of my career at Nestlé, I have completely new experience, when my company is manufacturing products for charitable donations - not just for sales, which is natural functioning of any business. This is an actionable measure to fulfil our commitment of?CHF?15 million in contributions to the people of Ukraine , including providing product donations from our factories. We are in a halfway to deliver our commitment and will continue to help Ukrainians until the end of this terrible war. We are conscious that for every piece of noodles, every bar of KitKat, every stick of Nescafé donated there is a human wellbeing and even life saved.

Humanitarian efforts of the business through the lens of people stories

Recently I was emotionally touched when I got the letter of gratitude from Ukrainian Charitable Organization "Down Syndrome". They have sent a request ?to ?Nestlé S.A. headquarters, asking Paul Bulcke, the Chairman of the Board of Directors to provide help with special medical nutrition for children living with Down Syndrome. Within the same day our team in Ukraine organized the transfer of the requested nutrition, which for me is a true example of cooperation and unity of the team despite boarders and distances, logistics and other difficulties caused by war. We all know that lack of nutrients in childrens’ diet has very negative impact on health. That is why it was critical to support children who, in addition to the exhausting war, were experiencing their own trials. We didn’t do this good in expecting of gratitude, but it came as feedback. Helping children in need is actively supported by our colleagues at Nestlé in European countries and Nestlé Health Science medical team in Ukraine. Within these 21 weeks we have donated 70 tons of special medical nutrition to more than 600 medical organizations within Ukraine, including regions under heavy shelling.

Another story illustrating Nestlé life in war times is a story of my colleague, a top manager of Nestlé in Ukraine, who is defending our country in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Being at the hospital, he needed restoring of glucose levels. On request of his doctor we sent him our Svitoch chocolate bars to use instead of medicine for this purpose. We have sent much more than it was needed, so all the staff of the hospital enjoyed chocolate and I was happy to hear that it was something supported their mood. Chocolate is a kind of therapy, which makes people smile and keeps them morally strong.

But what makes Ukrainians happy even more than chocolate is care of their pets. I was touched by sunshine people expressed when they received Purina products as humanitarian aid for dogs and cats. For me this is about values of Ukrainians, manifestation of humanity in the form of caring for pets, even when their own lives are in danger.

The story of our employees in Kharkiv is something which I will remember forever. It is a story of courage and devotion, a story of patriotism and philanthropy. On the 4th day of military invasion I’ve got a call from my immediate subordinate, who asked for a permission for eight people from his team to enter a closed warehouse of our factory in Kharkiv, full of instant food. The premises were closed because of heavy shelling in the city. The warehouse is located just in front of the entrance to the metro station, which was a shelter for many Kharkiv citizens. They were hungry for many hours already and most of them didn’t have chance to get food. Eight employees of our Kharkiv factory were among these suffering people, and they realized that they could save hundreds of people bringing them food from a warehouse. They just needed getting out from the metro station, crossing the street and opening the door. They were so determined that I had no choice but to allow them to do so, despite the danger they were exposing themselves to. With the assistance of the National police and City Territorial Defence, these eight employees, our heroes, were able to enter the warehouse safely and start shipping food for further delivery to people. Volunteers, City Territorial Defence and Kharkiv City Council further helped with the logistics of transporting the food that was retrieved. Each day, during two next months, my heroic colleagues were working tirelessly to ship between 12 and 15 tons of instant noodles, soups and purees until the warehouse became empty. We have shipped full stock, 404 tons of food, and have been able to feed the people taking cover in bomb shelters and metro stations of Kharkiv. This mission was accomplished thanks to our eight colleagues prioritized saving people from hunger over own safety, which is a heroic deed worth respect and admiration.

I should admit that every employee who works within the war is a hero. Because you should do your regular job despite stress and all difficulties caused by war. This was exactly what our sales team was doing since the first day of a full-scale war. On top of everyday work our brave sales people aligned with our distributors to provide emergency aid to people in the most affected cities including Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv and Mariupol. Because of heavy military actions in these regions it was impossible to deliver humanitarian aid there from our warehouses in western part of Ukraine. Our sales team used their own cars to deliver food from the warehouses of the distributors located inside the cities, distributing product stock prepared in advance to feed people in the shelters of these cities.

What I would like to say as a summary is that I’m extremely proud of my team in Ukraine and deeply grateful to my colleagues from Nestlé family around the world. Team spirit was a huge source of support for us in these days. Courage and “can do” mentality mastered along our business routine before the war helped us to remain strong, result focused and efficient in our solidarity actions in these unprecedented circumstances, in the most difficult times of Ukrainian history.?