Nestle SA’s Nespresso coffee business is launching paper-based compostable capsules to attract customers put off by the Swiss packaged food giant’s metal ones, which, despite being recyclable, often end up in landfill.
Nespresso CEO Guillaume Le Cunff said that not all customers were aware that its aluminum capsules are recyclable, and might be more comfortable with the compressed paper pulp pods.
“The objective is not to replace all the aluminum pods with paper, but to give the consumer more choice. It’s an alternative for sustainable options,” Le Cunff said in an interview.
Photo: Bloomberg
“You can compost the paper capsules or recycle the aluminum ones. We let the customer choose,” he added.
Nespresso is one of Nestle’s biggest brands, with sales last year of 6.4 billion Swiss francs (US$6.7 billion), and also one of its most profitable.
After surging sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nespresso has seen growth slowing, although Le Cunff said the launch was not a response to what he called a “readjustment.”
Le Cunff did not give any sales targets for the new capsules, which took three years to develop and are to be trialed in Switzerland and France, but hoped they would attract new consumers and keep existing ones.
Nor was the launch “greenwashing,” Le Cunff said as Nespresso had long been committed to recycling. Instead the new capsules are part of the brand’s evolution and innovation.
“People who have never considered Nespresso before will buy this capsule, and we may re onboard people who have left,” he said.
The brand had also been resilient during previous economic crises, so Le Cunff was confident about its future.
“Nespresso is an affordable luxury you might want to protect as a consumer during a tough time,” he added.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS