Nestlé wants to sell off its baby food brands

Nestlé France will withdraw from the NaturNes, Babicao and Babivanille baby food brands, as well as the P'tit franchises, in order to "strengthen the development of its infant formula business, a historical and strategic pillar of the Group". Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

The French subsidiary of the Swiss food giant Nestlé has entered into "exclusive negotiations" to sell its infant food products, excluding milks, to the French investment fund FnB, which has already bought Mousline purées.

The deal would “involve the brands sold in France and for export”, as well as the Vosges plant at Arches that produces them, according to the press release, which AWP learned about on Friday. It could be finalised during the first half of the year.

“This proposed sale would have no impact on the employees concerned”, the multinational assures us. According to French public television, the Vosges site employs 234 people. A CFDT trade union representative interviewed by France 3 Epinal pointed out that “productivity is up. In ten years, we’ve gone from 16,000 tonnes to 33,000.

But he acknowledged that the fall in the number of births in France was affecting the business: “We’re getting a smaller slice of the cake, and that’s having an impact on us”, he said.

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Until the transaction is complete, the teams responsible for these activities in Issy-les-Moulineaux, where Nestlé France is headquartered, and in Arches will continue their activities within the group.

Focus on infant formulas

Nestlé France will withdraw from the NaturNes, Babicao and Babivanille baby food brands, as well as the P’tit franchises, in order to “strengthen the development of its infant formula business, a historical and strategic pillar of the group”, according to the document. Nidal and Guigoz infant and growing-up milks are manufactured in Boué in northern France.

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In 2022, Nestlé sold its Mousline mashed potato brand to the French investment fund FnB, with which the group had entered into exclusive negotiations. This Paris-based fund specialises in supporting SMEs that process and market food products. In November, the French subsidiary of the Romande-based multinational also began talks with Italy’s Italpizza to sell its Caudry plant in the north of the country, following the scandal involving Buitoni pizzas contaminated by E.Coli bacteria.

Translated from French by DeepL/amva

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