NESTLE USA, INC.
ARLINGTON, VA

Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company. We have more than 2000 brands ranging from global icons to local favourites, and we are present in 191 countries around the world. Nestlé's purpose is enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future. We want to help shape a better and healthier world. We also want to inspire people to live healthier lives. This is how we contribute to society while ensuring the long-term success of our company. We’ve been making good food for more than 150 years. Since we started the world has changed and the food we eat has too. Select your birth year to find out more about your life in food, or just take a tour through history. Don't forget to share your favorite facts and figures with your friends! As the Manager of Supplier Diversity for Nestlé North America Procurement, I am proud to provide supplier diversity leadership to all of the Nestlé operating companies in the United States. We are committed to the development of meaningful and mutually beneficial business relationships with diverse suppliers and recognize the value these relationships add to our Company. We strive to exceed our diversity targets and to provide an environment where all suppliers, including those that meet the requirements of our Supplier Diversity program, are provided with all the information they need. Nestlé in the United States is committed to establishing and growing successful business relationships with qualified and certified diverse suppliers that reflect the gender, cultural, and ethnic diversity of the consumers we serve. Our sourcing environment includes small businesses that are women-, minority-, and veteran owned. For example, in 2016, we paid $2.3 billion to 7,264 small, minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses and helped sustain jobs across the country. Our strategy for engaging the best of these suppliers revolves around continual outreach and education, cultivating relationships, and inclusion of in-country events. We partner with trade associations and nonprofits that provide solutions to traditional barriers to diverse suppliers’ success, such as limited access to capital, information, or infrastructure. Having a Supplier Diversity Program makes good business sense. We are investing in the future of our company and in the communities in which we live and work. We thank you for your support in this mission. These trends are not limited to the general public since we see corollary developments in the business community as the population diversifies and ages. To assess these changes the U.S. Census Department surveys the business community every five years Business Owners and has documented the increasingly diverse U.S. business ownership which mirrors the diversity trends of our population. The next survey will be conducted in 2017. In 2012, minority-owned firms numbered 8+ million, an increase of 45.5 percent. These businesses generated $1.4 trillion in receipts which represented an increase of 35 percent from 2007. In 2012, women owned 9.9+ million businesses and accounted for 36 percent of all businesses nationwide. These firms generated $1.4+ trillion in receipts. A study by the Small Business Administration stated that small business continue to be responsible for more than 65% of the jobs annually created in the private sector. In 2012, there were 2.5 million self-reported veteran-owned businesses and they comprised 9.1 percent of all U.S. firms. A strong Supplier Diversity Program provides Nestlé with: A competitive advantage as we seek government contracts, and assurance that we are in compliance with the diversity expectations of our public sector contracts. Supplier diversity relationships are unique in that they truly benefit both parties. The diverse suppliers that we do business with are also our customers. Small, minority, woman and veteran-owned businesses tend to hire diverse employees and in supporting these businesses, we support a growing segment of our consumer community and gain their loyalty. And by retaining qualified, diverse suppliers, we gain a distinct competitive advantage that can significantly impact our bottom line. Strategic sourcing means just that—we source all of our products strategically. North America Procurement is responsible for selecting only those suppliers who can successfully meet Nestlé’s regional and international needs. With strategic sourcing, Nestlé can develop a strong, flexible and competitive supply base, and pass those improvements on to the customer. Supplier diversity is an extremely important component of our search to find those suppliers who can best meet Nestlé’s needs. Nestlé reserves the right to verify our Supplier’s compliance with the Nestlé Supplier Code. Nestlé confirms compliance with the Nestlé Supplier Code through either a combination of third party certifications or a Responsible Sourcing Audit conducted by a third party. 3. Human Rights in our business activities As indicated in the Nestlé Corporate Business Principles, Nestlé fully supports the United Nations Global Compact’s (UNGC) guiding principles on human rights and labor, and aim to provide an example of good human rights’ and labor practices throughout our business activities. 4. Code of Business Conduct Since the Company was founded, Nestlé’s business practices have been governed by integrity, honesty, fair dealing and full compliance with all applicable laws. Nestlé employees worldwide have upheld and lived this commitment in their every day responsibilities ever since, and Nestlé’s reputation remains one of the Company’s most important assets today. prescribe certain values and principles which Nestlé has committed to worldwide. This Code of Business Conduct specifies and helps the continued implementation of the Nestlé Corporate Business Principles by establishing certain nonnegotiable minimum standards of behavior in key areas. The new version of The Nestlé Corporate Business Principles was provided to each of our 280,000 employees globally by the end of 2010 and accompanied by learning and training tools. Employees were asked to acknowledge that they had received and read The Nestlé Corporate Business Principles.