Startups, regional brands good for business: Nestle India CMD Suresh Narayanan

Time of India

2 days ago

Startups
and
regional brands
are not only good for providing variety to consumers but also give established players the push to improve their product offerings,
Nestle India
's outgoing chairman & managing director
Suresh Narayanan
said.
Stressing on the importance of startups and regional brands operating in small catchment areas, Narayanan said
Nestle India
is working with startups as part of its accelerator program, to identify their potential and see how to partner with them.
"Startups and regional brands are good for the business. They do two things -one, they extend the variety for the consumer, and secondly, they give us additional inspiration for improving, making ourselves faster and smarter," Narayanan told PTI during an interview earlier this week.
According to Narayanan, today every brand has to be relevant to Gen Z and
Gen Alpha
consumers, who do not give much importance to the historical relevance of brands.
"It goes by what is in it for me, so Maggi noodles have to be relevant to the Gen Z consumer and not simply relevant because my father consumes it. So I think both of these are truths that we have realised as a company and are constantly working on to improve and control the price of our brands so that we do not become irrelevant in the context of the consumption story," he said.
Over the last few quarters, big FMCG companies are facing stiff competition in some of the segments, such as food products, personal care etc, from the small regional players, which have become very aggressive with more vigour after softening of inflation.
Narayanan, who is hanging up his boots on Thursday, said, "companies which are sustainable and contribute to communicating with the consumers digitally are becoming more favoured. We are accelerating our sustainable journey."
According to Narayanan, being a part of a Swiss multinational, sustainability is part of the DNA of the company and an intrinsic part of the corporate journey.
"Sustainability, usage of energy, air, Usage of water and usage of packaging have been part of discussion in the boardroom for a long time," he said.
Nestle is also working on reducing packaging materials. It has not only reduced 8 to 10% of the packaging materials used but also made it more environmentally friendly.
"Sustainability is something that the consumer looks for but the consumer necessarily pays for. It is something that, within the context of how the company chooses to conduct its business and for us, sustainability is an intrinsic part of our corporate journey," he said.
Besides sustainability, Narayanan, in his decade-long tenure on the driving seat of Nestle India, also focused on diversity. In his tenure, diversity in the management team doubled to 20%, which across the organisation went up to around 25 per cent, he said.
"With great pride, I say that we built a factory in Sanand in Gujarat, which is 45% women, so women in manufacturing," he said. Moreover, almost 30 to 40 differently-abled people are also working in Nestle factories.
Moreover, sustainability initiatives have also been incorporated in procurement and sourcing.
According to Narayanan, now its entire coffee, milk, and spices are sustainably sourced, and the company has been plastic neutral for the last four years. "So there has been overall progress on sustainability," said Narayanan.
Plastic neutrality
means balancing the amount of plastic usage. Under this, a company uses an equivalent amount of plastic that is collected and recycled from the environment.
Nestle India, which has a revenue of over Rs 20,000 crore, is among the top ten markets of the Swiss food multinational.