Spotlight on Success
Nestlé’s Story: Continuous
Excellence for More Than a
Century
Holistic approach guides company’s supply chain philosophy
By Supply Chain Management Association of Canada
N
estlé’s leadership in quality food products has ben-
efited consumers for 150 years. Nestlé’s history
began in 1866 as the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk
Company, offering consumers a safe long-life alternative to
fresh milk. The following year, Henri Nestlé developed a break-
through infant food to tackle high mortality rates among infants
who could not be breastfed. Canned milk products imported
from Europe first hit Canadian shelves in 1887. Manufacturing
in Canada began in 1918 and four years later the company was
incorporated as Nestlé’s Food Company of Canada Ltd. Today,
the company has approximately 3,500 employees in over 20
14 • SUPPLYCHAINCANADA.CA • SCMA
manufacturing, sales and distribution sites across Canada, with
annual sales in 2014 of approximately $2.3 billion.
Nestlé is a global company selling its products in 189 coun-
tries, so it should come as no surprise when Greg Christopher,
senior vice-president, supply chain operations, for Nestlé
Canada states: “Supply chain plays an important integration
role in our company. We connect experts and disciplines across
the company, whether it is sales, marketing or finance. We try
to connect the dots to have one holistic point of view of the con-
sumer value chain, and steward the end-to-end from consumer
demand to consumer consumption.”