雀巢的營運策略

We compete in attractive and growing categories and prioritize investments to stay relevant and win in every segment and market in which we operate. Our digital technologies help us identify emerging consumer needs and business model opportunities so we can bring differentiated innovation to market fast. We partner with customers across the retail landscape to adapt our product portfolio and channel strategies, leveraging our global brands to customize new products for local tastes and preferences. In 2021, our investment in strategic drivers yielded the following:

• High-growth categories of coffee, pet care, nutrition, water and nutritional health science, together representing 63% of sales, grew by 8.2%.
• Plant-based food products generated sales of around CHF 800 million with organic growth of 16.8%.
• 31 of our trusted brands, including Maggi, Milo and Nido, generated over CHF 1 billion each in annual sales at the retail level.
• E-commerce sales represented 14.3% of sales and grew by 15.1%, and our digital spend increased to 51%.
• Direct-to-consumer businesses represented 8.7% of sales and grew by 8.7%.
• Our premium offerings represented 35% of sales and grew by 12%.
• Emerging markets represented 41% of sales and grew by 7.8%.
• Sales of affordable, accessible products - many nutrient-fortified - grew by 7.1% and accounted for 18.9% of emerging market sales.

We focus on categories and geographies with attractive dynamics where Nestlé has an ability to win. Since 2017, we have completed or announced more than 85 transactions (acquisitions and divestitures) with annual sales equivalent to around 20% of 2017 Group sales. In 2021, we completed the following:

• Divestment of our Nestlé Waters North America brands.
• Acquisition of the core brands of The Bountiful Company, including Nature's Bounty, Solgar, Osteo Bi-Flex, Puritan's Pride, Ester-C and Sundown.
• Acquisition of Essentia, a premium functional water brand.
• Acquisition of Nuun, a leader in functional hydration through effervescent tablets.

We take decisive action to restore growth and profitability when businesses underperform. In 2021, we implemented a turnaround plan for our Wyeth infant nutrition business in China.

We continued to adapt our organization to be more agile, flexible and digitalized. In manufacturing, we continued to upgrade our operational footprint. In 2021, we reduced factory fixed overheads by 1.0%. In procurement, increased global buying combined with a reduced number of product specifications helped us reduce costs and complexity. Global buying through our three purchasing hubs was 63% in 2021. In our administration, we continued to simplify and standardize processes. The penetration of our shared service centers increased for the sixth consecutive year. Our five-quarter average working capital in % of sales was essentially stable at 0.1% at the end of 2021.

Investing for the long term takes the form of R&D investment, brand support and capital expenditure to support organic profitable growth. We allocate these resources discerningly, focusing on projects with the highest potential to create economic profit. We are accelerating our capital expenditure plans for our fast-growing categories, particularly coffee and pet care.

We are disciplined when it comes to mergers and acquisitions in order to protect our Return on Invested Capital (ROIC). We have a thorough project governance in place, with clear accountability and targets. Potential acquisitions must have a good strategic and cultural fit with our organization and offer attractive financial returns. We look for creative ways to structure transactions and build partnerships that enhance our strategic options.

We have demonstrated our commitment to maintaining a high level of reinvestment into the business while at the same time continually increasing capital returns to shareholders. We do this by increasing our dividend year after year. Based on our 2021 performance, the Board of Directors has proposed a dividend increase of 5 centimes to CHF 2.80 per share to be paid in April 2022. This will be our 27^th consecutive annual dividend increase. As a result of our strong free cash flow generation and business disposals, we continued to return excess cash to shareholders through share buybacks. The company's existing share buyback program terminated on December 31, 2021. In 2020 and 2021, Nestlé repurchased 123.1 million of its shares for a total amount of CHF 13.1 billion at an average price of CHF 106.08 per share, almost two-thirds of the anticipated CHF 20 billion existing program volume. A new plan commenced on January 3, 2022. Under this new program Nestlé plans to repurchase CHF 20 billion of its shares over the period 2022 to 2024. The company expects to buy around CHF 10 billion of shares in the first twelve months.