Today, consumer habits, desires and demands are evolving at record speed. And we know to deliver for our consumers, we must always be one step ahead. That’s why in 2024, Nestlé set out to reignite our innovation engine in North America and doubled down on new ways to be there for every moment at the times that matter to them most.
From expanding to new coffee formats, to the rise of GLP-1 medications, and harnessing the power of AI, we’ve moved quickly to serve our consumers wherever they need us to be. We have launched new products, accelerated our go-to-market capabilities, and empowered our employees with better tools and resources. Here are just a few of the great, pacesetting moments from across the business this year:
Innovating Across our Portfolio
We’ve expanded into new categories this year and brought more choices to our consumers, strengthening our portfolio and connecting to our consumers’ tastes and preferences.
Take STOUFFER'S Supreme Shells & Cheese, which marked the expansion of our iconic STOUFFER’S brand beyond the freezer into a brand new grocery aisle for the first time in its 100 year history. This is a $2.9 billion market—and we know that 30% of consumers purchase both boxed and frozen mac and cheese, so we entered the category with a brand that our consumers already know and trust. The move also tapped into a new e-commerce channel for the brand and met our consumers where they were already shopping.
Another breakthrough innovation was Vital Pursuit—our first-to-market Nestlé brand intended to be a companion for GLP-1 weight loss medication users and consumers focused on weight management. J.P. Morgan Research predicts that 9% of the US population may be GLP-1 users by 2030—that’s 30 million people. Our teams were at the forefront of this emerging market and seized the opportunity to meet a growing, unmet consumer need. Consumers can already find Vital Pursuit on shelf today, offering accessible and great-tasting food options for people who are managing their weight.
Keeping a constant pulse on trends and jumping on white space opportunities has fueled our ability to deliver for our consumers this year. Stouffer’s Supreme and Vital Pursuit are prime examples, but certainly not the only ones - Essentia Hydroboost delivers the brand’s first-ever flavored functional water, and Coffee mate Dirty Soda is a creamer designed to be poured over a glass of Dr Pepper, inspired by a viral TikTok recipe trend and representing an entirely new use for the product. Hot Pockets went sleeveless for a crispier crust and to reduce packaging waste, and we expanded our global cuisine offerings with Mings and Tapatío frozen meals. We brought new coffee formats to our consumers with Nescafé Gold Espresso, the brand’s first instant espresso offering in the US, Starbucks at Home’s first Iced Coffee blend made specifically for cold consumption hit shelves and Nespresso rolled out its first canned, ready-to-drink coffee.
And in pet care, Purina introduced Purina ONE True Instinct Lean Muscle Support to deliver a functional nutrition option that supports an active lifestyle for dogs. The team also leveled up treat time by crowd-sourcing the next Beggin’ treats flavor and launching DentaLife Plus dental chews to provide added immune and gut health benefits for dogs.
It’s innovations like these that have helped us continue to deliver relevance and value to our consumers.
Leveling up our Capabilities with AI
Pushing the boundaries of innovation also means having the right capabilities and tools in place to drive our innovation pipeline and business performance. We view AI as an enabler for our people—when combined with their unique skills and experiences, it can help us work smarter and faster to deliver for our consumers.
Our teams are using a new, proprietary generative AI tool that we’ve seen shorten the product ideation process from months to just weeks. The tool is embedded into our end-to-end innovation process and generates customized concepts in a little over a minute, taking in inputs from over 20 Nestlé brands and analyzing real-time market trends to suggest product ideas with staying power.
We’ve also implemented large-scale AI and Intelligent Process Automation within our supply chain to automate decisions and tasks related to demand forecasting, product distribution, freight and labor. On the sales side, we're leveraging AI to predict stockouts at retail locations, and the fusion of game theory and AI is enabling us to anticipate competitive responses and make better pricing and promotion decisions.
NesGPT, our internal ChatGPT solution, has helped our employees simplify day-to-day tasks and easily access on-demand information, giving them more time to do their best thinking and bring new ideas to the table. Unlocking opportunities with AI has empowered our employees and helped us deliver for our consumers with speed in the places they need us to be.
Powered by Our People
People are our performance drivers at Nestlé. That’s why ensuring every employee has a hand in innovation, no matter what business or function they work in, is central to the culture we’ve built.
We tap into the minds behind our brands every day. Open Channel, our employee crowd-sourcing program, has continued to generate opportunities to grow our business and create an environment where everyone feels empowered to innovate. From factory team members to recent college graduates, we’ve received thousands of ideas from our employees over the past five years.
These employee-driven ideas have informed new initiatives ranging from product proposals to operational efficiencies. We’re on our way to reaching $200M in revenue generated from the program and have even launched Open Channel externally to invite ideas from our consumers.
Looking to 2025 and Beyond
Nestlé brands are in 97% of U.S. households, and that’s a responsibility our teams take seriously. We work hard to earn a spot in the cart of our consumers every day. And as the year wraps up, our teams are not slowing down.
As I transition to my role of CEO, Nestlé Zone Americas I couldn’t be prouder of the momentum we’ve generated in 2024, and I look forward to following how this team continues to be there for every moment in our consumers’ lives—today, and in the future.
