Shivani Hegde, Nestlé Managing Director and Bandula Egodage, Nestlé Vice President – Corporate Affairs and Communications, receiving the Brand Finance Award from Ruchi Gunewardene, Brand Finance Managing Director 

Nestlé has once again been ranked Sri Lanka’s Most Valuable Food and Beverage Brand in 2018 by Brand Finance, in its annual report of Sri Lanka’s most valuable and strongest brands.

This marks the sixth consecutive year in which the company has been ranked amongst Sri Lanka’s Top 10 ‘Most Valuable Brands’. Moving up from 2017, with an increase in its brand value, Nestlé secured an overall rank of Number 7 out of 100 corporate brands from varying industries. 

Said Shivani Hegde, Nestlé Managing Director: “We are pleased to be recognised once again as Sri Lanka’s Most Valuable Food and Beverage Company. The fact that the Nestlé brand has moved up the rankings from last year demonstrates the growing trust and confidence consumers have, not just in our products but also in our company as a whole. We look forward to continuing to uphold this trust by enhancing lives with good food and beverages.” 

Brand Finance is the world’s leading independent brand valuation and ratings firm. It compiles an annual report on Sri Lanka’s 100 most valuable brands by using a brand valuation method compliant with the industry standards set in ISO 10668. It calculates Brand Strength Index, which assesses marketing investment, stakeholder equity and business performance; Brand Royalty Rate, which estimates an appropriate royalty rate for the use of the brand in a given sector, by considering the importance of a brand to purchasing decisions; Brand Revenues, which estimates the proportion of parent company revenues attributable to a brand; and finally, Brand Value, where post-tax brand revenues are discounted to a net present value.    

Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company and has been a part of Sri Lanka for 112 years.  Nestlé is Sri Lanka’s largest private-sector collector of fresh milk and one of the world’s largest exporters of coconut milk powder. It is also one of the top five most valuable companies on the Colombo Stock Exchange in terms of market capitalization.  

The company prides itself on local manufacturing, using mainly local ingredients at its state-of-the-art factory in Kurunegala. Its portfolio comprises some of the country’s best loved brands, which benefits from Nestlé’s world leading R&D network, global expertise in nutrition, and stringent quality standards. It provides direct employment to over 800 people in Sri Lanka whilst contributing to the livelihoods of over 25,000 local farming families. The ‘Good Food, Good Life’ company was also awarded as Sri Lanka’s Best Corporate Citizen in the Manufacturing Sector by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in 2017, and was ranked Sri Lanka’s Most Respected Food and Beverage company in 2016 and 2017 in the LMD Most Respected Entities Publication.