The world’s largest food and beverage company Nestlé plans to expand its business and bring children’s nutrition productions to various, difficult-to-reach mountain regions in Georgia in 2020.
In addition, the brand plans to optimize its portfolio by replacing products less in demand with new flavors.
“For example, we will replace the 90-gram soft-packed fruit juices of Gerber with fruit jams of the Nestlé brand. Of course, we are not canceling the Gerber brand. We will keep Gerber’s products in glass jar packaging”, said Giorgi Kakauridze from Nestlé.
Kakauridze said that this year, Nestlé will introduce new porridges on the Georgian market under the brand of Shagayka, which are intended for children over one year of age.
In recognition of Nestlé’s leadership in nutrition, health and wellness, the brand has become a Golden Brand winner in Georgia, named by customers and over 200 experts as their favorite children’s nutrition brand in Georgia.
“Being named the leading brand in Georgia in the field of children’s nutrition is a big motivation for our team, which will encourage us to bring new products to Georgia and develop further in the country,” said Kakauridze.
“High quality, healthy and safe products, affordable prices and a team of professionals. This is what has made for Nestlé’s success”, he added.
Nestlé offers Georgian customers around 90 different products that are available at almost all major supermarkets, hypermarkets and pharmacy networks in the country.
Nestlé first appeared in Georgia at the end of the 19th century and this is proved by the 1889 publication, which was published in the newspaper Iveria. What was the first product Nestlé brought to Georgia?
Yes, this is true. Nestlé first appeared on the Georgian market in the 19th century and Iveria wrote about it.
The first product Nestlé brought to Georgia was milk flour and not milk powder as we call it today.
Last year, Nestlé introduced new flavors of the Gerber brand on the Georgian market. How have customers reacted to this new brand?
Last year we added Gerber’s meat flavors to Nestlé’s array of products, which gained popularity among Georgian customers and contributed to the increase of sales of Nestlé in Georgia.
In general, year-on-year demand for Nestlé products has been increasing in Georgia by about 25%.
How does Georgia follow Nestlé development trends? I mean, are all new products of Nestlé available in our country?
Of course we bring many novelties to the Georgian market but not everything that is produced by Nestlé. The reason is that there is no need in Georgia to have all the products that Nestlé produces. For example, water. Nestlé produces water as well but there is no need to import Nestlé water in Georgia as local production of water is well-developed here.
From which countries are Nestlé products imported to Georgia?
Nestlé products that are imported to Georgia are produced in Switzerland, Germany and Poland. Then it is stored in Russia and then from there, it enters our country through the Larsi checkpoint.
Nestlé and social responsibility. Is the company involved in corporate social responsibility activities or charities in Georgia?
At Nestlé we believe that by developing better nutrition habits for future generations, we improve the quality of their life and support a healthier future.
This is how everything started more than 150 years ago when our founder Henri Nestlé brought infant formula (Nestlé’s Milk Food) to the market that saved a child’s life. We have continued his work by launching a programme called ‘Nestlé Healthy Kids’ through which we support parents as they raise healthy children.
The goal of the programme is to create and raise awareness regarding good nutritional practices, cooking methods to enhance the nutritional content of foods and physical fitness among students in village schools.
Our ambition is to speak about healthy lifestyle choices to 50 million children by 2030.
The programme has been running in Georgia since 2011 and aims to raise the quality of nutrition, health and well-being of school-age children through educational activities, and inform teachers, children and parents about the basic principles of a healthy lifestyle, especially the importance of healthy nutrition and physical activity, which is extremely important for the health and development of a child.
The programme is implemented in the form of free, fun lessons, conversations, quizzes, exercises and various events in second and third grade of elementary school.
As of today the programme in Georgia covers 37 schools and 7,560 pupils.
The programme has been implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Health of Georgia.
