For Nestle India, Goa is one of the most important states as it houses two factories out of the total eight in India. In fact, the Ponda factory manufactures chocolates for the entire country. VIKANT SAHAY caught up with the senior vice president, Corporate Affairs of Nestle India, Sanjay Khajuria to know more about the company which brings smile on a kids face.
HERALD: Nestle India has been in Goa for over 25 years now. How is your company helping Goa?
SANJAY KHAJURIA: We already have two factories here. The Ponda factory manufactures chocolates and in Bicholim the factory is dedicated for production of Maggi. We keep doing many corporate social responsibility events in Goa. We have programmes in which the street food vendors in Goa were trained. Goa was the first to have and we have trained about 1600 vendors. We are also working with the Goa University to train adolescent children. With Goa University we are also working with them for rain water harvesting. We are also putting in sanitation and drinking water facilities in various schools in Goa. We are ensuring that our engagement with the community is at a very good level.
HERALD: What is your purpose of your visit to Goa?
SK: The basic purpose is to work with and NGO and Goa Tourism to start looking at training of nearly 1000 lifeguards working for Drishti. The training will include how to manage their customers, how to speak with them, mannerism, etiquettes etc.
HERALD: How do you sustain such programmes?
SK: CSR and working with community is becoming very important for any corporation. We not only start the programme but we also sustain it. We have a team of four persons looking only at CSR activities. When we work with an NGO we all start from scratch and it is great team work as it will help the community. It is mandatory for all companies to invest two per cent of the average profit before taxes of last three years into CSR activities. We work with farmers and the milk we buy from him is not part of our CSR initiative it is a business and every stakeholder is at par. Pure investment on activities which has no co-relation with the business is considered as CSR investment for us.
HERALD: Nestle factory in Goa produces chocolates for the entire country. How did it happen?
SK: This factory at Ponda was set up in 1994-95 and we are completing nearly 25 years in Goa. This factory has now reached a level where everything to do with chocolates and confectionaries gets manufactured here in Goa. We have a total of eight factories in India of which two are in Goa. The Ponda plant is exclusively producing chocolates and one particular variant in chocolate is manufactured in Taliwal in Himachal Pradesh.
HERALD: Why was Goa selected to manufacture chocolates?
SK: In 1995 all the parameters which we normally check, whether land, logistics, market, water and proximity of raw materials were satisfactory for us. At that point of time we also got some incentives from the State govt and hence Goa became a natural choice for our endeavour.
