In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Paul Bulcke, Global Chairman of Nestle spoke about the latest happenings in his company and sector. He was speaking from the side-lines of World Food India 2017 currently underway in New Delhi.
Chief Executive Paul Bulcke says the lagging demand in China, which is also showing a slower sales recovery, has impacted the company‘s results.
Sales dropped 2.1 percent to 64.9 billion Swiss francs (USD 68 billion) in the nine months through September, missing analysts' average forecast of 65.9 billion in a Reuters poll.
Swiss food group Nestle has replaced the head of its Indian operations as the company battles its worst ever public relations crisis in the country, following a food scare that forced it to withdraw its popular instant noodles brand Maggi.
Paul Bulcke insisted that its hugely popular Maggi brand was 100 percent safe, saying that packaged food was unfairly fingered by many around the world as a health risk.
Amid nation-wide scrutiny over more-than-permissible limits of lead, Nestle on Friday withdrew instant food product Maggi Noodles from the shelves. Nestle, however, maintained the product was safe and decided to recall the product temporarily to calm sentiments amid "unfounded confusion".
The global CEO of Nestle, Paul Bulcke said he is very optimistic about the emerging markets. According to him, the dynamics of emerging economies like India and China are likely to be positive for a long time. He further added that despite the problems in Europe, Nestle has been substantially growing its business there.
Nestle's global CEO Paul Bulcke says India has all the ingredients for growth. "The company is all set to invest 50 million swiss francs in a new R&D facility in the country," he adds.
Swiss food group Nestle said on Monday it would buy US drugmaker Pfizer's infant nutrition business for USD 11.85 billion, beating out French rival Danoneas both sought to gain preeminence in the lucrative baby food market.
The world's biggest food group Nestle said weakening consumer sentiment in developed markets would make it harder to improve margins as it raised its sales growth outlook for 2011 after beating forecasts for the first nine months.