Pakistan is among those countries, which are facing lack of healthy and nutritional diet, especially in rural areas. Despite tall claims, successive governments have failed to deliver on this front, as one out of every five children lacks basic nutrients, which leads to early deaths.
According to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), malnutrition in Pakistan has reached an alarming proportion, as 24 percent of the population is undernourished, while 37.5 million people lack proper diet, which shows that the country has become a major opportunity for activities regarding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Several food companies have taken this opportunity as a challenge and have started making efforts to improve the situation by utilising their existing resources in providing essential nutrients in low-cost food products.
Nestle Pakistan, a subsidiary of Switzerland-based Nestle SA, is one of those companies, which has taken the task to provide nutritional diet to the people of Pakistan.
Keeping in mind the sensitivity of the issue, Nestle Pakistan established the largest milk plant of Asia and also the biggest milk reception among Nestle World at Kabirwala in 2007. The company vows to maintain quality and provide farmers with resources to access the market and get a good price for their produce.
With billions of rupees investment, the company achieved the top-line growth of 9.1 percent in 2016 through effective product mix, numeric distribution expansion and investment behind brands. The gross margins also improved 226 basis points on the back of favourable input costs and optimisation of value chain through Nestle Continuous Excellence (NCE) initiatives.
The board of directors also recommended a final cash dividend of Rs170/share, in addition to the interim cash dividend of Rs225/share, bringing the total dividend for the year 2016 to Rs425/share as compared to Rs190/share in 2015.
During the period under review, Nestle Pakistan made investment of Rs4.1 billion in expansion and development projects, including Sheikhupura extension and operational reliability, Kabirwala extension and operational reliability, water factories extension and operational reliability, milk collection infrastructure development and extension of distribution and sales facilities.
The company has planned to invest around Rs6.6 billion in automation, operational reliability and capacity enhancement in order to meet consumer demands in 2017.
During a recent visit to Kabirwala Factory (KBF), which was established in 1983 as Kabirwala Dairy and merged with Nestle in 1990, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, public relations and security manager and other officials of the company briefed a select group of journalists about the working of the plant and showed various sections of the factory. The delegates took round of the factory and witnessed processing and packaging of the products.
The officials said that the company has enrolled more than 5,000 farmers across 1,500 locations and over 1,250 farmers are being paid Rs4 million in a week. In 2016, around Rs80 million had been distributed among the farmers through Mobile Wallet, a service introduced by the company to facilitate small farmers through banking channels.
Likewise, Nestle Pakistan has launched mobile milk management system, a step forward in the digitalisation, as it allows for integration of data entry, collection and data checks in an efficient manner over a shorter and real time against the weekly basis used earlier.
According to the company’s annual audited report for 2016, Nestle Pakistan accelerated its manufacturing excellence by striving towards “Going for Zero Loss”. Last year, the Kabirwala Factory started implementation of NCE Advanced Practices. Several new projects were completed in the factory premises, which not only help provide good quality milk to the people, but also contributed significantly to the business. KBF obtained ISO 17025, FSSC 22000 and halal recertification during 2016 for delivering best quality products. Safe operations remain the hallmark of the factory, as it achieved the key milestone of 10 million safe man hours in the same year.
Every year, KBF conducts many employee engagement activities. To strengthen gender inclusive culture, special focus was given to facilitate women employees by setting up a women forum, a dedicated block and establishment of a day care centre. The factory also has water filtration plants and vocational training centre for women at its premises.
Under its parent company’s global philosophy, Nestle Pakistan strives to maintain its commitment to excellence in product safety, quality and services. The company has served the country in times of need such as after the earthquake in 2005 and digging wells in the Thar desert.
Nestle believes in nutrition, health and wellness, and it is endeavouring to enhance the quality of people’s lives by offering tastier and healthier food and beverages.
The writer is a staff member
