Nestlé to be more transparent about nutrition after shareholder pressure

New CEO hails success of investor campaign as he announces disclosure commitment 

Nestlé’s new CEO has unveiled plans to increase reporting on the nutritional value of its products, in a move he said showed the importance of “transparent discussions with stakeholders”.  

Laurent Freixe, who became Nestlé’s boss in August, said the firm will provide information in line with Access to Nutrition initiative (ATNi), the non-profit funded by the World Health Organisation.  

The decision comes after pressure from a group of shareholders, coordinated by campaign group ShareAction.

“For us to succeed, transparent discussions with stakeholders are a must,” Freixe wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday, namechecking ShareAction’s initiative. 

The NGO had criticised the firm’s reliance on the Health Star Rating (HSR) system – a global index used to evaluate the nutritional value of packaged food – and said its 2023 disclosures were “opaque and complicated”.

It also argued Nestlé had inflated its score by including coffee and specialised nutrition, such as vitamin supplements and baby formula, in its calculations. 

Along with the UK’s biggest asset manager, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), it filed a shareholder proposal last year asking the company for disclosures on the proportion of healthy products it sold, and time-bound targets to increase that proportion. 

Nestlé, under the leadership of former CEO Mark Schneider, opposed the resolution, and it was supported by just 11% of shareholders. 

Schneider argued the request “would curtail the flexibility of the company to continuously evolve its product offerings”, pointing out that Nestlé was already ahead of its peers on health issues.  

But Freixe said he had met with investors since taking the reins, and agreed to additional disclosures in line with ATNi – although he added that Nestlé would retain the HSR system “as the basis of our nutrition profile reporting”. 

The company will also continue to include specialised nutrition, petcare and pure coffee in its calculations, Freixe wrote on LinkedIn, “as they represent more than half of our sales”. 

“These categories make important nutritional contributions but are not included in the ATNi scope,” he added.  

His post was praised by LGIM’s head of stewardship, Maria Larsson Ortino, who said he had been “thoroughly impressed by Nestlé, Laurent Freixe and the team surrounding you”.