Nestlé - the world food giant - has been operating in Pakistan for the last 19 years. The company has gradually established itself as the largest consumer firm of the country. Starting with the milk collection and production, Nestlé Pakistan has expanded its business to other consumer goods like bottled water, beverages and prepared food, among other things.

Coming to the CSR part, Nestlé Pakistan defines its strategy as:

We believe that every single company, no matter where in the world it operates, ought to be fully integrated into the local social, cultural & economic life. We must be good corporate citizens, and give back to the societies to which we belong.

The company has devised a two-pronged strategy in this regard.

• Through social investments: giving to charities, leading and supporting cultural or welfare initiatives.
• Through the realisation that business create social and environmental impacts, both positive and negative, through the daily operations of their value chain.

The company has made significant social investments since its inception. According to the company Web site, it donated a sizeable amount to the earthquake relief fund and carried out on-ground relief efforts in addition to taking part in the rehabilitation process. The company currently has following welfare projects:

• Nutrition program for mothers & children
• Providing financial support to NGO
• Well and hand-pump installation projects
• Educational initiatives
• Farmers Training

Nestlé is also running a development program in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program UNDP to train village women in increasing milk production. To date, more than 4,000 women agricultural advisors have been trained under the program.

In addition, they also have a very large initiative covering lady health workers, that we will be looking into later on.

On the environmental front, the company also seems to be quite at par with international standards. The company’s official CSR report can be found here.

Now not sounding too PRish, the company also faces a sizeable amount of criticism. There are rumors that the company promotes its bottled water product by inculcating fears of drinking the normal tap water, as recently commented by one of our readers. How true is the claim is yet to be ascertained. Additionally, we would love to get information about the company’s CSR scene if any of our readers can help us in this regard.

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