Nestle is adapting to the needs of lower-income areas in order to take advantage of a new market opportunity.

• Nestle is sending a supermarket barge down the Para and Xingu rivers, two tributaries of the Amazon, in order to reach customers in Brazil who cannot get access to name-brand goods otherwise.
• The company has created smaller and cheaper versions of its products so that lower-income consumers will be able to afford them.
• If the project is successful, Nestle plans to expand it in Brazil or even in other countries like the Philippines.

Facts and Figures

• Nestle predicts that as many as one billion people in emerging markets will become able to afford its products in the next decade and that it will make as much as $18 billion per year from selling the smaller and cheaper forms of its products worldwide. The company also plans to increase the proportion of its sales that come from developing countries from 35% to 45% in the next decade.
• The supermarket barge makes a circuit that brings it to 18 cities and 800,000 potential customers.
• Nestle has invested one million reais ($560,000) in creating smaller and cheaper products and establishing partnerships with local suppliers.

Best Quote

“In Para, rivers act as streets and avenues. We have to adapt to this reality. [People’s] daily lives here are linked to fishing, to the region they live in. They don’t have the time or money to get to the capital.” – Ivan Zurita, President of Nestle Brazil

Tags: Brazil, emerging markets, Food, nestle