Nestlé Nestlé’s supply chain professionals use the FT to enhance their global understanding

Today Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage conglomerate, with operations reaching far beyond their Anglo-Swiss origins as a condensed milk company and Henri Nestlé’s Infant Cereals. As barriers to trade fell during the 1990s, the doors to new markets in Asia were opened. 

Will Mackereth is Nestlé’s supply chain director for Vietnam, a country that’s undergone significant development and economic growth since Nestlé’s incorporation there in 1995. Will’s role encompasses procurement, planning activities on both the demand and the supply side, customer services and all the physical logistics of running their domestic business in Vietnam. Despite being predominantly focused domestically, Will highlights that the business is involved in significant import/export activity too.

“We import in the region 80 million US dollars worth of Nestlé products from other marketplaces and export roughly $90 million, that largely being coffee,” he says. The global nature of trade requires those who are managing supply chains to have an accurate understanding of what can impact their business from the wider world.

Having worked for Nestlé both in the UK and in Switzerland where “there was always a paper copy of the Financial Times available somewhere in the office”, Will has long been an FT reader and has continued to value the analysis and commentary since taking up his post in Vietnam. 

Commenting on the digital rollout of Nestlé’s Professional Subscription to FT.com, Will describes himself as “a very hungry adopter” who was keen to ensure his wider team were also taking advantage of access to a trusted source of insight.

In a position that covers everything from logistics and e-commerce to commodities and sustainability, Will’s information needs are broad and there are vast micro and macro factors that can influence his decision-making. “My role requires me to think about what energy prices might be,’’ he offers as an example. 

“That could be in terms of what’s driving the boilers of our plant, or the fuel for our transport. I want to understand that and it takes you to the politics of what’s going on in places like Iran.” This understanding of the relationships between global events and their business is something Will encourages his direct reports to develop as well. 

“I want my team to have a breadth of interests,” he says. “It helps them start to see the correlations between what’s going on in the big wide world and the impact it has on prices locally.” The ability to read a wide breadth of content, whilst also being able to drill into specific areas such as commodities analysis, makes the FT a primary intelligence source for Will and his team.

The demands of Will’s role leaves little time for in-depth research into individual topics. He therefore uses the myFT tool to follow key areas of interest and have relevant content delivered to him through email alerts and a daily digest newsletter.

Will follows over 20 topics on myFT including; food prices, agricultural production and container shipping. Not only does this enable him to stay informed, but it also gives him a quick means of catching up if he’s ever falling behind on his news consumption. 

Beyond being able to share FT analysis with colleagues, an FT Professional Subscription provides Nestlé with a number of additional benefits. Will experienced one such perk first-hand when he was contacted by a FT customer success manager, offering to help him get the most out of the FT’s digital tools and content.

“I’m sure every business manager feels they are time-poor and not utilising all the services and solutions they have available to them,” he says. “I’m always interested to hear what I could be doing better so it’s a great service to provide.”

Through individual consultations or group sessions for teams and departments, the FT customer success team ensures that readers on group subscriptions are taking full advantage of their access. They partner with organisations such as Nestlé to help them meet their goals or expected outcomes through using the FT.