The Story Behind the Brand

INTERVIEW WITH DEREK VASSALLO,

OOH & B2B SALES MANAGER AT NESTLÉ MALTA

THE STORY BEHIND THE BRAND

Over 285,000 employees, CFH 92.6 billion group sales in 2019, an organic growth reaching 3.5% and a real internal growth which accelerated to 2.9% in the same year, are a few of the impressive figures which explain why Nestlé is considered to be the biggest Food and Beverage company in the world. Working for such a giant in the food and beverage sector is an opportunity yet also a challenge especially in the current COVID-19 era which has hit hard on all markets and has spared no mercy on Nestlé itself. Notwithstanding such challenges, the company strives for further growth both at a global and regional level. Atelier had the opportunity to meet up with Derek Vassallo, Sales Manager at Nestlé Malta who shared with us what lies behind the success of Nestlé, Nestlé Malta’s operations, the challenges COVID-19 has brought to the fore and projects Nestlé Malta has in the pipeline.

What makes Nestlé stand out of the crowd? One can mention many things that make Nestlé stand out, these vary from responsible sourcing, Nestlé commitments and the fact that we continuously strive to make our products tastier and healthier. However, if I had to mention one thing I would say that our Principles and Values are what truly makes us stand out. Although the company has evolved throughout the years we still kept true to the vision of our founder, Henri Nestlé, which is to influence positively the social environment and enhance the quality of life. Our principles and values are rooted in respect and a fundamental part of our business strategy is our Creating Shared Value. In simple words we need to create value for the people in order to create value for our shareholders. This includes all our suppliers, starting from farmers, our employees, our consumers and the communities where we operate. Can you tell us more about Nestlé’s responsible sourcing? Nestlé approach to responsible sourcing is one of the central pillars of our purpose. Our commitment is to implement responsible sourcing throughout our supply chain and also to promote animal welfare. Responsible sourcing is also essential to ensure the long-term sustainability of our business. With responsible sourcing practices we can have a positive social and environmental impact. We continuously report transparently on the sourcing of our raw materials. We also built on efforts to tackle deforestation, promote human rights and ensure animal welfare in our supply chain. In our responsible sourcing program we collaborate closely with all the involved stakeholders, from deliverers, importers, processor, and farmers. Together we ensure health and safety, environmental concerns, animal welfare and human rights.

In what way does Nestlé enhance quality of life and contribute to a healthier future? Nestlé has developed three bold ambitions for a better future and to help us achieve our purpose of enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future. For individuals and families our 2030 ambition is to help 50 million children lead a heathier life. To achieve this we are launching more nutritious foods and beverages, simplifying ingredient lists and removing artificial ings. We also use micronutrient fortification to help address health challenges. Also we are committed to decrease further sugars, saturated fats and sodium, while increasing vegetables and wholegrain in our products.

How would you assess Nestlé’s longstanding relationship with the local market? Nestlé has been established in Malta for over 100 years and throughout the years it has always kept a consumer centric philosophy. This has helped us to establish household brands, like Nescafé, Baci, Kit Kat and more. In 2016 Nestlé Malta launched its Consumer Center with the purpose to create a better contact point between Nestlé, its customers and its consumers. This consumer center is continuously evolving in order to ensure we meet the consumer needs as well as gives us the opportunity to take care of our environment by collecting recyclable materials.

What is your experience working with Nestlé Malta? I’ve started working with Nestlé three years ago and I can say that I found myself at home in a company that has the same values and principles I was brought up with. In the past three years I managed to grow significantly thanks to the continuous support of other professional colleagues and senior members within the company, and thanks to their guidance I also managed to achieve positive results and reaching the set goals.

Why is working with Nestlé Malta an opportunity to go for? Nestlé is a company that values its employees and helps every employee to develop both on a personal level as well as on a professional level. Nestlé also provides a flexible working environment. This helps employees to balance better the business requirements together with the personal needs. The importance of health and safety is a top priority and this gives peace of mind to the employees. Nestlé is

a multicultural company and hence brings together also a lot of diversity. However thanks to its approach, in regards to gender balance and diversity it manages to bring employees together irrelevant of any diversity and offers equal opportunities.

In what way has COVID-19 effected Nestlé’s operations in Malta? Covid-19 has challenged our operation on different levels and our OOH home channel was impacted negatively drastically. However Covid-19 also offered us the opportunity to show the true s of Nestlé. While keeping health and safety as top priority we ensured that we continue to keep a constant supply to our consumers. At the very beginning of the pandemic we implemented a set of safety measures in order to safeguard both our customers and also our employees and we continued to adjust these measures accordingly. We have guaranteed 12 weeks of full pay to all employees that were impacted and assisted employees

to telework where possible. We are frontrunners when it comes to teleworking and hence this was a process that we knew perfectly how to handle. We also took the opportunity to support various NGOs, health workers and also animal shelters. We are now in the process to assist the HORECA channel in its restarting phase and we are committed to assist our clients in such challenging times.

What are your predictions on consumer behaviour post COVID-19? COVID-19 has reshaped the whole word and also the way we trade. We’ve seen radical changes in consumer’s behaviour and it is obvious that the post COVID scenario will surely be different to what we were used to until now. Consumers have become more multichannel and e-commerce sales have soared to extraordinary levels. It is also likely that certain habits acquired during the pandemic will remain long term. It is being foreseen that brands that don’t adapt rapidly the “new normal” will not survive. It is also expected that consumers will continue to eat less out of home in the immediate future and they will try to support local favourites when possible. Purchases that are nonessential will also continue to see a slow down as consumers have become more discreet in their spending.

How is Nestlé Malta adapting to this new reality? When it comes to employees we are managing a phased return to our workplace for our office-based employees. In regards to our partners, we have outlined various initiatives especially to support our partners that were impacted most, which are our partners in the HORECA channel. We want to accompany our clients during this restarting phase and we are doing this through economic support and also through marketing plans that help our client to face these unprecedented times.

What’s next for Nestlé Malta? Nestlé is always focusing on consumers and innovation. Based on this we are exploring various exciting projects that will fit the new reality we are living today. These projects will continue to help us to become closer to our consumers and strengthen our collaboration with our customers. What we can say for now is that we look positively for the future and we anticipate exciting times for us, our customers and our consumers. So stay tuned and stay safe.