Nestle opens a plant in Dubai
Nestlé continues its efforts started in the Middle East and announces the opening of a new factory in Dubai and also honors 48 teachers and supervisors for successfully implementing its educational program.
The Dubai Educational Zone has honored 48 teachers and supervisors from 19 public schools for successfully implementing the “Nestlé Healthy Kids Program – Ajyal Salima” in fourth and fifth grade classrooms.
Nestlé is investing USD 120 million in a new manufacturing facility in Dubai to produce coffee and culinary products and cater for rising demand throughout the Middle East. The new facility will be built on a 175,000 square meter plot and will provide employment for 400 people.
Nestlé is building the new factory to provide fresher products for consumers in the Middle East and better cater for local tastes. Yves Manghardt, Chairman & CEO of Nestlé Middle East, said: “The opening of this new facility in Dubai will strengthen our local manufacturing capabilities, giving us more flexibility to adapt our products to local consumer preferences and use local and regional raw materials”.
The new Dubai factory will create synergies in warehousing and logistics that will allow Nestlé to better serve the Middle Eastern region as a whole. The facility will start producing culinary products at the end of 2015, and coffee products in early 2016.
Nestlé Healthy Kids Program
On the other hand, Nestlé claims to be involved in an nutritional program for kids in the Middle East.
The Dubai Educational Zone has honored 48 teachers and supervisors from 19 public schools for successfully implementing the “Nestlé Healthy Kids Program – Ajyal Salima” in fourth and fifth grade classrooms.
The Program aims to enhance nutrition knowledge and encourage better eating habits and physical activity among students. It was first launched in Dubai Educational Zone schools in the 2012-2013 academic year, with the support of the Dubai Health Authority and Nestlé Middle East. It reached 10 schools during its first year of implementation, before expanding to all 29 public schools in Dubai during the 2013-2014 academic year.
“The Dubai Educational Zone considers enhancing awareness of healthy nutrition among students and increasing their level of physical activity to be very important,” said Dr. Ahmad Eid Al Mansouri, Director General of the Dubai Educational Zone. “The Program has helped support these objectives with easy to implement activities that teach through playing, and we commend the schools as well as physical education teachers for implementing it.”
Developed by the AmericanUniversity of Beirut to answer to regional community nutrition issues, Ajyal Salima has so far reached over 16,000 students in the Middle East since its initial launch in 2010.
In addition to Dubai, the Program is being implemented in Lebanon, where it was first launched in 2010 and adopted last year as part of the Lebanese Education Ministry’s school health unit curriculum following scientific evidence it significantly enhances children’s nutrition knowledge and improves their eating habits; and in Saudi Arabia, where it was launched in 2014.
The Program’s curriculum encourages the intake of a balanced and varied diet; fruits and vegetables consumption to five or more a day; breakfast and healthy snacks intake; and regular physical activity; as well as controlling high fat, high sugar foods and beverages intake; and reducing time spent watching television, on the computer or playing video games.
Nestlé Middle East’s heritage goes back 80 years to 1934 when the first import operation was set up in Lebanon.
Today, Nestlé Middle East owns and operates 18 factories and provides direct employment to more than 11,000 people and indirect employment to several thousand more.
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