According to Rodrigo Camacho, Chief Executive Officer at Nestlé Chile, the capital will be used for automation, innovation, enhanced safety and food safety in all the country’s production lines.
After more than 20 years at the Swiss multinational, Rodrigo Camacho took over as CEO of Nestlé Chile in July 2023. The company’s local operations include over 80 brands, ten factories and eight distribution centers, making them the third largest in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico.
Camacho added that in terms of per capita sales, Chile is one of Nestlé’s top three countries worldwide, together with Switzerland and Singapore. “As a country, Chile offers stability and tremendous reliability (...) Despite the complexity the world has experienced since 2019 and particularly since the onset of the pandemic began revolutionizing the economic and industrial world, what we are trying to do in Chile is maneuver the company in order to continue growing and being the company we are in Chile,” said Mr. Camacho in an interview with Diario Financiero.
Currently, all the product categories Nestlé sells worldwide exist in Chile, and 80% of the offering is produced in Chile, which “is super strange and difficult” for a multinational, according to Camacho. One new investment in Chile is infant formula production—a market kept very small by the high quality demands of the product.
“We added a line of specialized products for newborns and thus were able to begin supplying the local market. In fact, we just won a tendering process with Cenabast and are going to start producing for the whole country. We will certainly start exporting soon,” the executive explained.
Mr. Camacho said the investment and growth plan was presented to the parent company in Switzerland in June, focusing on automation, innovation, enhanced safety and food safety in all the country’s lines. “This is going to involve a great deal of technology. Everything was accepted; we have the green light to continue investing heavily in Chile. Over the next three years, the investment will approach US$ 300 million,” he claimed.
Source: Diario Financiero.