Nutrition and FMCG*

GGBa: worldwide appeal

Some of the world’s favorite shopping cart brands are produced in the GREATER GENEVA BERNE area (GGBa) which has dominated the nutrition and consumer goods sector on a global level for decades. GGBa has a long association with Toblerone chocolate and other household names including Ovomaltine (or Ovaltine outside Switzerland), which is drunk in 100 countries and continues to have its research base in Berne. The canton is also where Nestlé chose to launch its Nutrition Production Center recently (specialising in milk products, pro-biotic baby food, dietary nutrition and special foods for the healthcare sector).

Nestlé’s main headquarters is in fact in Vaud, along with other industry leaders including Nespresso, the world leader in coffee capsules, with other major multinationals including Philip Morris International, Cadbury Schweppes and General Mills. Elsewhere, Geneva has been the corporate headquarters of two of the world’s three top flavor and fragrance companies - Givaudan, and Firmenich - since the late 1800s, while also attracting multinational FMCG producers such as Procter & Gamble (P&G), present in the city since 1956.

key benefits

Companies as international as these could locate themselves almost anywhere on the planet, but they choose to stay in the GGBa because it offers:

• Easy access to customers, including the world’s leading multinational manufacturers of beauty, household and fabric-care products, pharmaceuticals, food and drinks. Having clients such as P&G, Elisabeth Arden, Shiseido, Colgate-Palmolive in the GGBa allows for ongoing consultation and the development of collaborative clusters, a common feature throughout the region’s other key industries;
• A highly educated workforce capable of innovation in this R&D-intensive sector. Nestlé’s main laboratory, Nestlé Research Center (NRC), is at the cutting-edge of nutrition technology, bioanalytics, functional foods and food safety. Some 300 scientists from 45 different countries work at NRC. Nestlé’s Chocolate Centre of Excellence in the Gruyère region of Fribourg is also known for bringing together leading chocolatiers, sensory experts and packing designers to create some of the world’s finest and most innovative chocolate. In addition, Firmenich’s Food and Flavor Expertise Center employs 160 people in state-of-the-art laboratories, working on applied research, product development, sensory analysis and marketing. In total, some 1,450 employees are based at the company’s headquarters in Geneva;
• Creative opportunities with leading universities and start-ups. The sector is moving closer to the outsourcing model used by the big pharmaceutical companies in order to make the most of external partners’ substantial R&D capabilities. More than one in two innovations are the result of such partnerships - good news for the SMEs that constitute a pillar of the GGBa economy, especially since companies such as Givaudan invest up to 10% of sales revenue in R&D. Such cross-disciplinary ventures include P&G’s collaboration with Swiss Precision Diagnostics, or Nestlé’s NRC work with the Brain Mind Institute of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), in basic cognitive neuroscience research;
• The perfect strategic position in Europe within easy reach of the major capitals by air, rail or road, and a perfect springboard for Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

*Fast Moving Consumer Goods