Nestlé publishes 2020 Annual Report, spotlights sustainability at the Annual General Meeting
Nestlé today published its 2020 Annual Report. The report highlights the company’s financial and non-financial performance for the year and gives an update on strategy, innovation, digitalization and sustainability.
Nestlé has also sent the Annual General Meeting (AGM) invitation and agenda to shareholders.
2020 Annual Report
Despite the challenges of COVID-19 in 2020, Nestlé delivered strong results, achieving improvements in organic sales growth, profitability and capital efficiency for the third year in a row. Nestlé also continued to make progress on its portfolio transformation through targeted acquisitions and divestments that focus on attractive, high-growth businesses.
A key contributor to Nestlé’s growth is its consumer-driven innovation that also strives to reduce the company’s environmental footprint. Some examples highlighted in the report include the launch of Sensational Vuna, a plant-based tuna alternative, and the increased use of paper packaging for brands such as Maggi. The company further reduced the average time to market of such innovative products by another 10% and increased the number of multi-market launches by 23%.
Nestlé’s continued digital transformation enabled it to accelerate growth and better engage with consumers in a year that saw a surge in online shopping. Nestlé’s e-commerce sales grew by 48.4% and accounted for 12.8% of total Group sales in 2020. Additionally, more than 60% of all of the company’s digital media campaigns used a data-driven, audience-first approach to personalize messaging to consumers.
In the Creating Shared Value (CSV) section of the report, Nestlé highlights that it has fully achieved 28 of the 36 commitments it had previously defined to support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Those commitments focus on promoting healthier lives, improving livelihoods and protecting and restoring the environment. The full CSV and Sustainability Report will be published on March 23.
The full Annual Report contains Nestlé’s Annual Review as well as the Corporate Governance & Compensation Reports and the Financial Statements, which were published on February 18, 2021.
Read about these topics and more in the Annual Report