Today, Nestlé SA is the world's largest Food and Beverages Company, and a global leader in health, nutrition and wellness. Consumers around the world, from village squares in Nigeria to the skyscrapers of New York and Chicago, are united by the Nestlé promise of quality, taste, nutrition and convenience.

Though headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, we now have 487 factories dotted around the globe, employing over 250,000 people in 86 countries. Our products are available in almost every country, and in 2005 our global sales reached $73 billion.

Our operations are spread across three global zones covering Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania and Africa. Recognising that every region has its special needs, the three zones operate locally, but are united by a common vision and priorities. The voices of even the smallest local markets are heard at our headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland.

Our immense popularity comes from our efforts to develop products that give quality and nutritional benefits at low prices, even in the most remote regions.

We distribute them using local means; in Madagascar, for instance, backpacker salesmen sold over 12 million MAGGI tablets within six months, an approach that was duplicated in Pakistan and Mozambique.

Our consumers know that they can rely on us to be there when we are needed.

To find out more on our global operations visit
http://www.nestle.com/.

• Corporate Social Responsibility

  Our presence in the community is not restricted to making Nestlé products available to consumers; it brings with it a responsibility to those around us. In China and Pakistan we provide animal husbandry assistance to thousands of farmers. In Brazil our food education programme has trained hundreds of volunteers to teach families about nutrition, health and hygiene. And in India, we finance and oversee the provision of clean water at village schools near our factories, benefiting some 20,000 children.