NESTLE, the world's largest food manufacturer, was established in 1866 in Switzerland. Worldwide company sales in 2006 reached RMB 627 billion.

NESTLE is the world's largest manufacturer of soluble coffee, infant nutrition, dairy products, confectionery, bouillons and seasonings, ice cream, bottled water as well as petcare. The NESTLE Group is also involved in non-food-related products, including ophthalmic products (Alcon) and a minority participation in the L'Oreal cosmetics group. NESTLE operates 481 factories worldwide and employs 265,000 people.

NESTLE established its first trading office in Shanghai as early as 1908. In order to better serve the entire China area, Nestle opened its China Corporate Head Office in Beijing in 1996. To date, in Greater China Region, NESTLE has made an investment of some RMB 7 billion and operates 21 world-class factories. 99% of Nestle products sold in Mainland China are locally manufactured. NESTLE in Greater China Region employs more than 13,000 regular employees, and total sales reached RMB 11.9 billion in 2006.