Appointed as the new CEO of Nestle Vietnam in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Binu Jacob tells Viet Nam News about how Nestle navigates challenges during the crisis in the framework of the recent Vietnam Business Sustainable Development Forum (VCSF 2020).

How does a big business like Nestle Vietnam help in the fight against COVID-19?

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Nestle’s priority has been to protect its employees, ensuring they remain safe and healthy. We also ensure the continuity of supplying food and beverages to meet the demand and give a helping hand to our business partners and communities.

We applied additional safety measures in all factories, offices and distribution centres by providing nearly 22,000 face masks and 3,000 face shields to our employees, rewarding employees who work to ensure the continuity of nutritional product supplies to the communities in need.

We actively worked with the government, local authorities and partners to implement various programmes since mid-March. We donated VND12 billion in products and cash to support the frontline workers who dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as 88,000 medical masks to the Ministry of Health and Centres for Disease Control in five provinces.

We realised that small businesses are highly vulnerable to the coronavirus crisis. With the pandemic outbreak and social distancing, small restaurants, street food vendors and school canteens had to temporarily close for a few months. Most of them suffered a drop in sales volume, high rental fees and shortage of labour. So, we have supported 22,000 small out-of-home business partners who have been hard-hit by COVID-19 with free Nestle products worth VND22 billion. Also, more than two million Nestle MILO products are given for free to schoolchildren nationwide on the day they return to schools.

These are our on-going efforts to support the communities where we operate and is driven by our purpose “Unlocking the power of food to enhance quality of life for everyone, today and for generations to come”. It may be a small drop in the ocean. But then every drop counts. We hope our support could be followed by other strong businesses.

What initiatives have you implemented to confront the challenges caused by COVID-19?

We continue to offer high quality and nutritious food and beverage products to Vietnamese consumers. We have closely monitored the market and consumers’ behaviours so that we can quickly respond to any changes.

We launched the #StayHealthyStayOptimistic campaign to encourage our consumers and the communities to adopt healthy habits and lifestyle. All our brands, such as MILO, NESCAFE and MAGGI implemented campaigns to connect with and lift up the spirit of thousands of consumers. For instance, if consumers are likely to stay at home more often, then NESCAFE is looking at encouraging consumers to be their own home barista and educating them on making coffee shop-style cafe at home.

We have maximised our online and digital presence, boosted our product presence on e-commerce channels and ensured product availability in other distribution channels. We have also reviewed our portfolio strategy and are working on prioritising new launches that make sense in the ‘new normal’.

What are the challenges for you for taking the role of CEO at Nestle Vietnam in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic?

I was in China during the peak of the coronavirus crisis and, to some extent, this prepared me reasonably well for taking on the new responsibility in the peak of the COVID-19 crisis in Viet Nam.

On the first day of my new position on April 1, it was also the day we started to work from home. Leading a new team in such a crisis from home was the first challenge. But thankfully, we have a very driven, resilient team and together we created Project STORM with 5+1 streams that worked on focused priorities and clear responsibilities and this structured process helped us weather the initial part of the crisis.

How has the pandemic affected Nestle Vietnam so far this year?

The impact of the coronavirus has been everywhere around the world, and in the F&B industry. However, we still see consumers’ confidence in healthy products with high quality. In the pandemic, we can see that the health of senior citizens and children are prioritised, the good nutritious products for these groups are searched for extensively.

Although there have been some changes in demand, it is still early for us to quantify the overall financial impact of the outbreak. Ensuring the health and safety of our employees, families and consumers remains our priority. We are committed to ensuring continued production and delivery of our foods and beverages for Vietnamese consumers by continuing to work closely with our supply chain, distribution and retail partners.

How has Nestle Vietnam prepared for a crisis like COVID-19?

Having lived and worked in China during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis there and then in India for a few weeks before coming to Viet Nam, I am quite amazed by how the Vietnamese Government managed the COVID-19 crisis with limited resources but unlimited determination.

Viet Nam has so far shown strength and stability in weathering the COVID-19 storm and offered a successful example to other countries and territories. Nevertheless, COVID-19 continues to spread around the world and not a single country or business is offered absolute safeguard to the pandemic.

People are at the heart of our business. We continue to work tirelessly to keep our employees, business partners and the communities where we operate healthy and safe during the coronavirus outbreak.

We are committed to ensuring continued production and delivery of our foods and beverages for Vietnamese consumers. To achieve this, we continue to work closely with our supply chain, distribution and retail partners.

We keep a strong belief in the capability and management of the Vietnamese Government to effectively contain any possible outbreak.