Nestlé invests S$5.5m to drive product development in Singapore
The Swiss food giant has three R&D centres across Asia - in Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing - that form part of a wider global network of 32 centres.
Nestlé’s latest capital injection into its Singapore R&D centre will drive product development for its fastest-growing Asian markets – Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Australia.
“Singapore’s strategic location… has made it an ideal base from which to drive our pan-Asian operations,” Paul Bulcke, CEO of Nestlé said.
“It is well-positioned to help us successfully innovate in Asia, for Asian consumers,” Bulcke added.
The country’s well-connected infrastructure, political and economic stability and multi-cultural society were additional factors that drew Nestlé to build an R&D centre there, the company said.
Johannes Baensch, global head of Nestlé Product Technology Centres (PTCs) and R&D centres, told FoodNavigator-Asia that such facilities enable Nestlé to be closer to the local consumer and to gain greater understanding of how to work with locally sourced raw materials.
Enriching R&D across Asia
The Swiss group will open its fourth Asian R&D centre later this year in India, a project announced in 2010. This addition to the company’s research network will enable product development tailored to Indian consumers.
“Local R&D units like in Singapore, China, or in the future in India, are successful through the local people we hire, supported and complemented by our existing knowledge base. There are fantastic competencies in those markets and we see this also as a talent pool for the future,” Baensch said.
“We are also constantly looking to partner with local suppliers and local universities in these markets,” he added.
Tailored to Asia
Nestlé’s Singapore centre is committed to tailoring products to Asian consumers, working on micronutrient fortification and nutritional, affordable products for low-income consumers, said the company.
However, Baensch noted that knowledge gained locally is also applied on a global scale.
The Swiss giant now employs more than 600 people in the country and has its largest malt extract manufacturing plant in Singapore’s Western town of Jurong.
