Nestlé Waters Strengthens Mexican Position

30/11/06 Nestlé Waters, the world leader in bottled water, has signed a letter of intent with Grupo Modelo to establish a strategic bottled water alliance in Mexico. Grupo Modelo owns the well-known Corona brand and is the leading beer producer and distributor in Mexico. The aim of the alliance is to further develop Nestlé Waters’ existing bottled water business in Mexico, which includes household brands such as Santa María, S. Pellegrino, Perrier and Nestlé Pureza Vital, sister brand of Nestlé Pure Life already sold in 21 countries across the world.

Nestlé Waters currently has a market share of about 15% in Mexico's modern trade. Once this partnership is finalised, Nestlé Waters will have privileged access to traditional distribution channels in Mexico, allowing it to increase its market share quickly and sustainably over the coming years. Mexico is the world's second largest bottled water market with a yearly turnover of 15 billion litres and average growth of 8% per year.

The news comes as speculation increases that Nestle may acquire baby-food company Gerber Products from Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG for as much as $5 billion. With estimated annual sales of about $1 billion, Gerber is the third-biggest player in the $5.7 billion US infant nutrition market, which is growing at 3 per cent to 4 per cent a year. Gerber products are distributed in more than 80 countries. Separately, Nestlé agreed yesterday to buy Green’s Foods, of Australia, for A$137 million ($US106.8 million) in an effort to boost its market share there.