Battle royale in making: Nestle eyes its pie in Amul nest

In an exclusive interview to The Indian Express,Waszyk said he was taken in by the progress and development in Gujarat and wanted a presence in the western region of the country.

Impressed with Chief Minister Narendra Modi whom he met briefly at the FICCI meet,Waszyk is hoping to meet him formally about this project.

While Nestle India officials have not so far discussed land identification and acquisition with the state government,Waszyk met some bureaucrats informally and says he felt “welcome” in the state. “We are looking for land preferably within 50-100 kms of Ahmedabad because of the good infrastructure here. It could be north,south,west,wherever,” he said.

To begin with,Nestle is looking for 50-100 acres and it is categorical about not investing in dairy in Gujarat where Amul is firmly entrenched. But Waszyk does not rule out the possibility of the Nestle factory coming up close to that of Amul in Anand district.

Interestingly,the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF),which markets Amul brand,shot off a legal notice to Nestle earlier this month over trademark infringement of its dairy brand A+. This was soon after the food major launched a new brand of milk and yogurt called Nestle a+. Waszyk says they are “cordially” sorting out the matter.

Waszyk refuses to call this a bad note to begin with. “Amul is one of the greatest brands and it will be fun to compete with it. It is such a professional company and a respected brand that being seen as a competitor of Amul is quite rewarding. It is a premier league,” says the Nestle chief.

Nestlé India’s first production facility was started in 1961 at Moga in Punjab,followed by plants at Choladi (Tamil Nadu), Nanjangud (Karnataka),Samalkha (Haryana),Ponda and Bicholim in Goa and Pantnagar in Uttarakhand. Another is set to open in March next year in Himachal Pradesh. Chocolate and confectionery are currently made at Ponda plant while Maggi products are manufactured at Moga,Bicholim,Pantnagar and Nanjangud.

For Waszyk,who has been visiting sites on Friday and will look at more sites on Saturday,it was “natural” to look at Gujarat. “Land acquisition is complicated in India. Gujarat seems to be very attractive and has an efficient process which we have been observing,” he says,hoping to close the acquisition process by middle of next year and set up the plant in two years after that.

Nestle plans to use wheat from Gujarat for the proposed factory. “If we make noodle here,we could use wheat from Gujarat,” says the chairman.

Some of the attractions here for Nestle are Gujarat’s growth rate,and the “balance between agriculture,service and industry,” apart from infrastructure in terms of road and power for the water supply,says Waszyk.