Maggi crisis among career's greatest challenge: Nestle India MD Suresh Narayanan
Packaged foods maker
Nestle India
's chairman and managing director
Suresh Narayanan
called out India as a market with a mix of '
inflationary pressures
and unexpected opportunities,' in his last letter to the company's shareholders.
Narayanan
, associated with
Nestle
for over 26 years, will retire from the India role on July 31 this year, to be succeeded by former Amazon India top boss Manish Tiwary.
"We live in capricious times,
inflationary pressures
, muted
consumer demand
, tightening of the wallet - wrapped up in a decade of challenges and unexpected opportunities,' Narayanan wrote in the company's just released annual report for 2024-25.
Noting that 'volatilities will come and go', Narayanan said his first 100 days as
Nestle India
chairman 'were one of the greatest challenges of his career'. In 2015, Nestle's mainstay brand,
Maggi
instant noodles, was banned by food regulator FSSAI on allegations of some samples of Maggi containing lead in excess of permissible limits. The brand was cleared by authorities subsequently and was restored back on shelves, but the controversy took a huge toll on Maggi and the entire instant noodles category that year. Narayanan noted that now India is the world's largest market for the Maggi brand, as the company navigated 'the black swans and gray rhinos'.
The maker of Maggi noodles and
Nescafe
coffee reported a 5.2% year-on-year decline in standalone quarterly net profit at Rs 885 crore for the March-April '25 quarter, impacted by commodity costs. The company's domestic sales touched a quarter high at Rs 5,235 crore, up 4.2% from a year ago, with revenue from operations up 4.5% y-o-y to Rs 5,504 crore. The company said it invested around Rs 6,500 crore between 2020 and 2025 to develop new capabilities and capacity.
Narayanan said Nestle added 1.3 million more retail outlets last year, with presence in close to 209,050 villages. On brand reach, he said Nescafe brought more than 43 million households into the coffee category, confectionery tripled its business in the last decade and that the prepared dishes and cooking aids business doubled the Maggi franchise in India. Nestle's capex has gone up from 1.8% of sales in 2015 to 10% in the FY 2024-25, he said.
The past decade has seen Nestle's revenue grow at a CAGR of 10.3% and profit from operations higher by 13.5%.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
43 minutes ago
- Time of India
Infosys to give cash sops to employees taking part in interviews to help hiring
India's second largest software major Infosys has introduced a cash reward policy for senior employees who conduct interviews for lateral hiring, in what is seen as a move to boost employee morale. An employee will earn 700 points (Rs 700) per interview. Employees can claim the incentive for interviews in the past five months as the programme takes effect retrospectively from January 1, sources told ET. This is the first time Infosys has embarked on such an incentive-led programme, a senior employee said. The Bengaluru-headquartered IT major's policy, however, limits the cash incentive for hirings within India. This is an acknowledgement of employee support for the interview process as the IT sector focuses on lateral recruitment over slowing campus hiring. According to an employee, this move is to encourage team managers and mid-level leaders to get external talent and push employees to reach out to more quality candidates. At Infosys, tech professionals such as track leads, architects and project managers across job level 5 and 6 (JL5 & JL6) routinely interview candidates shortlisted by the talent acquisition team for lateral hiring over 2-3 rounds before the candidate progresses to the HR round. The company, however, has excluded employees in the HR and talent acquisition teams, sub-contractors and titleholders (senior leadership) from the reward programme. Employees cannot claim the incentive if an interview is cancelled or a candidate does not show up. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Infosys did not respond to an email seeking comment. TCS , Wipro , HCLTech and Accenture did not respond to queries on the subject. Infosys's reward programme comes at a time when the $280 billion software services sector is experiencing a shortage of experienced people with specialised skills, especially in AI, amid growth pangs due to weakening global demand and trade wars in their key growth markets. The Salil Parekh-led firm also conducts weekend recruitment drives in which many candidates participate. At such events, an employee could participate in 10-15 interviews a day assessing a candidate's competence in software skills such as Python, Java, Machine Learning, DevOps, etc. The cash reward encourages to interview more candidates. A senior Infosys executive said the scheme was aimed at pacifying a section of employees disappointed with pay hikes of 5-8% for FY24 and the subsequent lower performance bonus payout for the March quarter. 'Earlier, we did not get any such cash incentive for interviews done. In fact, the company gave us compensatory leaves for the interviews conducted at the campus over the weekends,' the employee said. While not many firms have such a policy, some large and mid-sized technology companies such as Honeywell , Accenture and Sonata Software are known to give both cash and non-cash incentives to encourage employees to be part of interview panels and be invested to attract best talent from the pool of available candidates within the industry. Honeywell India vice president (HR) Arppna Mehra said they reward employees by way of a training outside of his or her domain area, helping them acquire leadership skills.
Economic Times
an hour ago
- Economic Times
Dixon awaits govt nod to make displays for sub-Rs 15k phones jointly with HKC
The company filed its application about six weeks ago and is now awaiting clearance, as the proposal falls under Press Note 3. Under this rule, India requires prior approval for foreign investments from countries with which it shares a land border. These include China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, and Afghanistan. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads PARIS: Electronics contract manufacturer Dixon Technologies is awaiting government approval to produce display modules for mobile phones priced below Rs 15,000, as well as for laptops and tablets, in partnership with China-based display firm HKC , said Sunil Vachani , chairman of the company filed its application about six weeks ago and is now awaiting clearance, as the proposal falls under Press Note 3. Under this rule, India requires prior approval for foreign investments from countries with which it shares a land border. These include China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, and Afghanistan."We have recently filed the application," Vachani said, adding that the company will explore alternative manufacturing options if approvals are not noted that if India's free trade agreements with the EU and the US materialize, the country could aim for $100 billion in annual emphasized the need for companies to look beyond mobile phone manufacturing and expand into laptop production."They can be easily manufactured and scaled up with high value addition," he India imports $15 billion worth of IT products boost its IT hardware manufacturing , Dixon Technologies has formed a joint venture with Taiwan-based Inventec Vachani also said that Korean and Taiwanese companies involved in display technology for mobile phones have exited the sub-?15,000 segment.(The correspondent is in Paris at the invitation of the commerce and industry ministry.)
Deccan Herald
an hour ago
- Deccan Herald
Auto rides: Advance tips being collected despite govt warning
When prompting for tips, apps like Namma Yatri are reportedly placing the default amount at a higher level, such as Rs 40, users say.
