Nestle India's Chairman and Managing Director Suresh Narayanan said on Friday that the company has "strong commitments" to local manufacturing and plans to invest Rs 4,200 crore by 2025, including in its 10th plant in the country in Odisha. Nestle India, the maker of popular Maggi noodles, KitKat chocolate, and Nescafe, is investing in capacity because it expects "fairly robust" demand in the Indian market in the coming years.

"The investments done are fairly significant... till the first half of 2023, about Rs 2,100 crore has already been invested on capital investments," Narayanan said at a media roundtable here.

These investments are for augmentation of manufacturing capacity, he said adding a third of that has gone into food space, another one-third on chocolate and confectionary and the rest on nutrition and others.

"An additional Rs 4,200 crore will be spent between 2023 and 2025." This includes approximately Rs 900 crore for a new factory in Odisha," he stated.

In September of last year, Mark Schneider, CEO of Nestle SA, a global food and beverage conglomerate and its parent company, announced an investment of Rs 5,000 crore by 2025.

Nestle India has invested approximately Rs 7,000 crore in India over the last 60 years, according to Narayanan.

"This is an indication of where the promise for India stands and where the company's performance is taking us," he said, adding that new manufacturing practises, technology, and digital infrastructure are all coming together.