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With close to 4.5 million Sri Lankan school children at home, e-learning has taken on a special new significance. To help parents teach their kids about nutrition, health, food safety and hygiene during this time, the Ministry of Education and Nestlé have launched an e-learning version of its long-running Nestlé Healthy Kids programme. Usually taught by Ministry educationists as an extra-curricular subject in public schools, the programme aims to raise awareness on nutrition and a healthy lifestyle among school children. It is Sri Lanka’s first official ‘Nutrition and Wellness’ (Poshanayai Suwadiviyai) e-learning programme.

Fabrice Cavallin, Nestlé Lanka Managing Director (left) and Enoca Sirimanne, Nestlé Lanka VP – Human Resources, packing the Nestlé food and beverages to be donated

Vulnerable families needing support as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and frontline workers battling the pandemic have received a total of Rs. 50 million in aid from Nestlé. In its second phase of relief efforts, Nestlé will be joined by its employees, who are voluntarily contributing part of their salary to help those in need. The company will match all employee contributions on a one-to-one basis.

Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, Head of the National Operations Center for Prevention of COVID-19, Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Sri Lankan army, accepting Nestlé’s donation from Fabrice Cavallin, Managing Director of Nestlé Lanka.

Sri Lankan workers at the frontline of battling the COVID-19 outbreak received close to half a million serves of food and beverage products from Nestlé, worth Rs. 15 million. The products were donated to the National Operations Center for Prevention of COVID-19 for distribution to medical workers, armed forces and others, in support of the critical work they do.

“Now more than ever is the time to uphold our strong values as a company; to continue making a meaningful contribution and difference to society. We’re honoured to be able to nourish those who help keep us safe at this time” said Fabrice Cavallin, Nestlé Lanka’s Managing Director.

Fabrice Cavallin, Managing Director – Nestlé Lanka receiving the award from Honourable Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Nestlé was recognised as Sri Lanka’s number one F&B company at the recent Business Today TOP 30 awards. The company jumped nine places from its previous ranking to become one of the top 10 companies on the list, which featured Sri Lanka’s best-performing corporates across all industries. The event awarded organisations that had achieved growth in challenging times during the 2018-2019 period, demonstrating resilience and ingenuity in serving consumers and supporting the country’s economy. This is the fifth consecutive year Nestlé has been recognised by Business Today.

“We are honoured to be recognised as one of Sri Lanka’s top 10 corporates by Business Today, in acknowledgement of the contribution we make every day to the country and its people. We have always placed Sri Lankan consumers’ needs first in everything we do - helping to nourish their families, develop their communities, and protect their environment” said Fabrice Cavallin, Nestlé Lanka’s Managing Director.

Nestlé Lanka has committed to making 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025. Its vision is that none of its packaging, including plastics, ends up in landfill or as litter. Striving for a cleaner and greener nation, the Good Food Good Life company has launched a number of green initiatives, under its ‘Making My Sri Lanka More Sustainable’ campaign.

“As a company deeply rooted in Sri Lanka, we believe that it is our duty and responsibility to safeguard the planet by minimising the impact of packaging on the environment. At Nestlé, we have been working on the sustainability of our brands, products and operations for years. All our Nestlé offices and facilities in Sri Lanka are driving a plastic waste-free culture and have taken a conscious call to stop plastic promotional items from April this year. Through this initiative, we will eliminate around 250 metric tonnes of plastic in 2020.” said Fabrice Cavallin, Nestlé Lanka Managing Director.

Nestlé’s popular and nutritious energy brand Milo, is once again giving away brand new mountain bicycles to 1,000 lucky winners. All they need to do to stand a chance at winning is to SMS a unique code, found on the back of every Milo RTD pack, to 6456 via any mobile network. [MILO<space.>CODE<space.>NAME<space.>AGE]. The campaign will run till 30 November 2019 where winners will be chosen at a grand draw to receive their very own Milo branded bicycle and the opportunity to pedal the streets at a gala bicycle parade.

From left to right: Manjula Narangoda, Nestlé Senior Manager – Regional Sales; Chathura Buddhika, Nestlé Assistant Manager – Sales Training; Thilan Prasanna, Nestlé Senior Manager – Key Accounts; Anuruddha Rathwatte, Nestlé Assistant Manager – Key Accounts; Shamshard Marikkar, Nestlé Senior Manager – Channel Category; Rimaz Rizwie, Nestlé Manager – Key Accounts; Jagath Wedage, Nestlé Vice President – Sales; Shanaka Wijeweera, Nestlé Senior Manager – HR Services; Bimal Wijayasinghe, Nestlé National Sales Operations Manager; Janaka Dias, Nestlé Manager – Distributor Development, and Sutharsanan Ambikaikumaran, Nestlé Senior Category Manager.

Nestlé’s Rimaz Rizwie and Anuruddha Rathwatthe struck Gold at the recent 2019 SLIM NASCO (National Sales Congress) Awards. Rimaz won the ‘Territory Manager of the Year’ Award, also taking home the ‘Territory Manager (Modern Trade) – Gold’ Award at the event, while Anuruddha received the ‘Sales Executive – Gold’ Award under the FMCG - Food category.

From left to right: Rajith Perera, Nestlé Manager - Procurement; Charindu Makawita, Nestlé Assistant Manager - Application Group; Nimal Ravel, Nestlé Assistant Manager - Application Group; Sudharaka Sandeepana, Nestlé Assistant Manager - Supply Planning; Satish Daswani, Nestlé Assistant Manager - Exports; Panchadcharam Sathiyenthra, Nestlé Vice President - Supply Chain; Lakshika Weeramundage, Nestlé Senior Manager - Exports; Mohammed Sazmin, Nestlé Manager - Management Accounting; Rajiv Dharmarajah, Nestlé Senior Executive - Procurement; Sujeewa Priyadarshana, Nestlé Assistant Manager - Financial Reporting; and Sujeewa Pinto, Nestlé Assistant Manager – Customer Services

Nestlé has won the ‘Best Exporter’ Award in the Coconut Kernel Product Sector for 2018/2019, at the recent Presidential Export Awards. This is the eighth Presidential Export Award presented to the company, for its continuous efforts in strengthening national exports, uplifting the local coconut industry and creating sustainable livelihoods.

Nestlé’s new micro irrigation system for coconut farmers

Nestlé’s Maggi Coconut Milk Powder has been providing Sri Lankan families delicious, high quality coconut milk powder made from the best quality local coconuts since 1986. On World Coconut Day, the brand celebrated 33 years of working together with Sri Lankan coconut farmers by providing a micro irrigation system for two model farms in the Nestlé Coconut Plan, established to train farmers and help them learn best practices. Proper irrigation is an essential part of successful coconut cultivation, as it helps the farmer save water, time and labour in addition to enhancing plant growth and yield.

Farmer Shantha Wijeratne from Horowpathana previously struggled without a steady supply of water for his farm.

Nestlé has just launched a much awaited variant to its Maggi noodles range – creamy, cheesy, spicy Maggi Daiya Cheesy Noodles. The new noodles product comes with a delicious cheddar cheese powder, and includes spices like black pepper, onion, garlic and chilli for a mouth-watering savoury flavour. While the delicious blend of cheese powder and spices are included in the pack, Maggi fans are encouraged to also add milk when making the dish, to make it extra creamy. Delicious and nutritious, Maggi Daiya Cheesy Noodles is a must-have for the family when looking for a flavoursome quick and easy meal.

Nestlé delivers Rs. 37.3 billion sales in 2018 amidst challenging market conditions

Nestlé delivered a revenue of Rs. 37.3 billion and a net profit of Rs. 3.5 billion for the full year ending 31 December 2018, amidst challenging market conditions. Revenue for the fourth quarter was Rs. 9.4 billion with a net profit of Rs. 0.9 billion.

2018 was a challenging year, impacted by unfavourable exchange rates, political uncertainty, and floods, leading to low consumer confidence and weak consumer demand. In addition, the withdrawal of concessionary income tax rates on the company’s Exports and Ready-to-Drink businesses, along with an increase in Financing Cost to support the company’s investment of approximately Rs. 5 billion to enhance production capacity (completed in late 2018), impacted the company’s net profit for the year.

The company’s contribution to the exchequer as taxes in 2018 was Rs. 6.4 billion.

Maggi lovers across the country can now learn more about their favourite noodles brand and all its delicious ingredients through Nestlé’s ‘Know More About What You Love’ campaign on www.maggi.lk/mymaggi/. The delicious noodles product is using traditional spices and herbs, loved and trusted in Sri Lankan cooking, to enhance taste. These include coriander, cardamom, turmeric, cumin, black pepper, nutmeg, fenugreek, aniseed, chilli, garlic, ginger, rampe and curry leaves. The Maggi noodles range is also enriched with calcium and is SLS certified by SLSI (Sri Lanka Standards Institute), in recognition of its high quality and food safety standards.

As part of Milo’s ambition to help nurture a healthier generation, the brandis once again giving over 1,000 children and their families the opportunity to ride their very own Milo mountain bicycles and celebrate the grand finalé of the brand’s ‘Win 1,000 Mountain Bikes’ campaign. The participants, chosen via a scratch-card SMS competition in October last year, will begin their cycle parade at the Sports Ministry Grounds on 12 January 2019. They will pedal their way through the city of Colombo and back again to the starting point, where celebrations will continue with a grand carnival. The event will focus on not only instilling healthy eating habits and an active lifestyle but also on encouraging kids to bond with their families.

Shivani Hegde, Managing Director receiving the BT TOP 30, 2017-2018 award from Honourable Nimal Siripala de Silva, Minister of Transport & Civil Aviation

Nestlé was the highest ranking F&B company in Business Today’s list of Sri Lanka’s top thirty leading corporates for 2017-2018. The company was recognised for its enduring commitment to the country; enabling growth, providing economic and social opportunities, and enhancing the quality of life of the Sri Lankan people.

Business Today has been compiling the Business Today TOP 30 list since 1997 to acknowledge listed business entities that have ‘stood firm and performed with changing tides’ in the economy. With the assistance of KPMG Sri Lanka, it evaluates company performance recorded during the financial year ending December 31 and March 31, based on available published information.

Milo is giving away hula hoops with every Milo 400g pack to encourage kids to live an active lifestyle. The brand has also launched a Hula Hoop Challenge, which encourages kids to share videos of their best hula hoop moves on the Milo Sri Lanka Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/MiloSriLanka/) to stand a chance at winning a Rs. 100,000 cash prize. The challenge will run till 30 November 2018.

Milo has long been synonymous with sports and an active and healthy lifestyle. The hula hoop challenge is the brand’s latest initiative to make getting active fun for kids. Milo has introduced 10 fun hula hoop moves in three easy steps via demo videos on its Facebook page, for kids to try, namely; ‘Ants in my pants’, ‘The spinner’, ‘The chicken wing’, ‘Tornado’, ‘The hooping looper’, ‘The hula-copter’, ‘Marching band’, ‘The soccer juggle’, ‘The carousel’, and ‘The windmill’.

Nestlé’s Managing Director, Shivani Hegde, with the female farmers in Madhu

Continuing its strong dairy development drive in the country, Nestlé has opened its third milk chilling centre in the Mannar district, in the north-western town of Madhu. The chilled storage facilities are vital in a tropical climate, as it offers farmers a means to keep their milk fresh until it is transported to Nestlé’s factory in Kurunegala. The facility adds to Nestlé’s extensive milk collection network across the island, which currently supports approximately 20,000 Sri Lankan dairy farmers. The new milk chilling centre is expected to benefit a further 300 farmers in Madhu, comprised predominantly of women, by providing them a route to market.

Nestlé Lanka has announced that its Managing Director, Shivani Hegde, will be moving to Nestlé’s global headquarters in Switzerland to lead food category developmentfor Asia, Oceania and Africa. Nestlé’s local operations will be taken over by Fabrice Cavallin, currently Regional Business Head - Infant Nutrition for South Asia, effective 1 January 2019.

Nestlé swept the board at the recent Effie Awards, clinching six wins for its Maggi, Nestomalt, Milo and Nangrow brands. It was the most awarded F&B company at the event, recording the highest number of wins within the industry.

Nestlé was the only company to win awards for Media Innovation, clinching a Silver Award for Nestomalt Mobile Tug O’ War and a Finalist Award for the Milo 16^th Man Cheer-Line. Nestlé was also the highest ranked company in the Packaged Food category, winning a Bronze Award for its Maggi Coconut Milk Powder “Welawa Ithurui, Adaraya Uthurai” (Save Time and Let the Love Flow) campaign, and Finalist Awards for its Maggi Noodles Recipe Campaign and Maggi Daiya Chicken Noodles Challenge. Nestlé also won a Finalist Award in the Beverages category for its Nangrow Building Blocks campaign.