NEW DELHI: Six months after facing a controversy over high sugar levels in Cerelac, Nestle India announced the launch of its baby food with no refined sugar. “We have achieved our ambition of introducing ‘Cerelac’ variants with no refined sugar,” chairman and managing director Suresh Narayanan said. This was initiated three years ago and has culminated this year with the introduction of new Cerelac variants with no refined sugar, he added.
The expanded Cerelac range in India will now consist of 21 variants, of which 14 variants will have no refined sugar. Of these 14 variants, seven will be available by Nov-end and the balance will be introduced in the coming weeks.
In April, the FMCG biggie found itself in eye of the storm after a report by Public Eye, a Swiss investigative organisation and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) charged that Cerelac baby cereal products sold in India contained added sugar. As against this, in Europe, the report claimed, the company does not add any sugar to its infant nutrition products.
Elaborating on results, Narayanan said “Despite a challenging external environment with muted consumer demand and high commodity prices especially for coffee and cocoa, we remained resilient in our pursuit to deliver growth. This quarter, five of our top 12 brands grew at double-digit,” he added.
The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 899 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2024, slightly down from Rs 908 crore reported in the corresponding period last year. Its sales increased over 1% to Rs 5,075 crore. Some key brands witnessed pressure due to softer consumer demand and we focus on them and have put in place robust action plans. …In the last nine months, 65% of our top 12 brands, including Maggi noodles, showed positive volume growth, he stated.
The beverages business continued to do well and has posted high double-digit growth.