How Nestlé’s pioneering China business fell into disarray

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How Nestlé’s pioneering China business fell into disarray

Chinese distributors are chasing the Swiss giant for refunds after it allegedly oversupplied the market as demand dropped. In China’s Hebei province Feng Liqing has a 100 square metre warehouse full of boxes of Nestlé infant formula and milk powder. The problem is she can’t sell any of it. Feng, a Nestlé distributor since 2018, says that the world’s biggest food company pressed her to buy more stock than the market could absorb. She said she felt that a failure to comply would result in Nestlé ditching her for another distributor. Her relationship with the Swiss company broke down in 2022, prompting Feng to travel to Nestlé’s office in Beijing to make her case that the KitKat maker had reneged on an agreement to refund her for the unsold goods. Feng says she is owed about Rmb1 million ($147,000). “My expenses keep accumulating . . . my bank loans have to be repaid. So now I truly can’t sustain it anymore,” she said. Feng is one of several Chinese distributors who claim the company …

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