History of Nestle Foods and the Milo Brand in Nigeria
BACKGROUND
Nestle Foods was started by Henri Nestle in the mid eighteenth century, in his bid to find an alternative to breast milk for babies whose mothers could not nurse in order to reduce infant mortality. Consequently Nestle’s first customer was a premature infant who could tolerate neither his mother’s milk nor any of the conventional substitutes and had being given up for lost by doctors. The value of the product was recognized after it saved the child’s life.
Henri Nestle showed an early understanding of the power of branding as he adopted his very own coat of arms as the company’s logo and refused to allow Nestle in various countries to have different logos. The coat of arms reflected his name; which meant little nest in his dialect as it consisted of a birds’ nest with a mother bird and her three little chicks.
The company expanded its product base very quickly, with the collaboration of Daniel Peter whose company figure out the mix of milk with cocoa powder to make milk chocolate. They also merged with Henri Maggi’s whose company created powdered soups and bouillon cubes, sources and flavorings using legumes.
The early part of the eighteenth century saw the expansion of Nestle into various countries as exports to countries such as Singapore, Honk Kong and Bombay. The company also began full scale operations in Australia. However this soon became a difficult period for Nestle as a result of scarcity and rising prices of raw materials, worldwide post war economic recession, and deteriorating exchange rates. This eventually led to a change in the company’s structure as factories were established in developing countries.
This has laid the foundation for the establishment of Nestle Nigeria in 1961. It started operations in Nigeria as a simple trading organization but today is one of the leading food manufacturing companies. It was incorporated as a private company in Nigeria as Food Specialties Nigeria Ltd. It became a public company in 1978 and changed its
Nestle Foods was started by Henri Nestle in the mid eighteenth century, in his bid to find an alternative to breast milk for babies whose mothers could not nurse in order to reduce infant mortality. Consequently Nestle’s first customer was a premature infant who could tolerate neither his mother’s milk nor any of the conventional substitutes and had being given up for lost by doctors. The value of the product was recognized after it saved the child’s life.
Henri Nestle showed an early understanding of the power of branding as he adopted his very own coat of arms as the company’s logo and refused to allow Nestle in various countries to have different logos. The coat of arms reflected his name; which meant little nest in his dialect as it consisted of a birds’ nest with a mother bird and her three little chicks.
The company expanded its product base very quickly, with the collaboration of Daniel Peter whose company figure out the mix of milk with cocoa powder to make milk chocolate. They also merged with Henri Maggi’s whose company created powdered soups and bouillon cubes, sources and flavorings using legumes.
The early part of the eighteenth century saw the expansion of Nestle into various countries as exports to countries such as Singapore, Honk Kong and Bombay. The company also began full scale operations in Australia. However this soon became a difficult period for Nestle as a result of scarcity and rising prices of raw materials, worldwide post war economic recession, and deteriorating exchange rates. This eventually led to a change in the company’s structure as factories were established in developing countries.
This has laid the foundation for the establishment of Nestle Nigeria in 1961. It started operations in Nigeria as a simple trading organization but today is one of the leading food manufacturing companies. It was incorporated as a private company in Nigeria as Food Specialties Nigeria Ltd. It became a public company in 1978 and changed its