Nestlé has been criticized for years, due to the controversial water production in Vittel, France. Now the group seems to be reacting: As one of the most important sales partners in Germany, Lidl will no longer sell the mineral water from Nestlé in the future.
The global food giant Nestlé which also is one of the largest Halal producers globally is apparently on the decline with its much-criticized mineral water Vittel. According to Lidl HQ, will not extend its sales agreement with Nestlé, said a spokeswoman on request, thereby confirming information from German media companies.
The contract expires at the end of October 2021 “after a joint vote” with Lidl, the spokeswoman said. As one of the large grocery chains in Germany, Lidl is one of the most important sales channels for Nestlé’s Vittel water in this country. Other German and European groceries Stores might follow if consumers demand it.
Nestlé has been criticized for years with its Vittel mineral water. The water has been pumped from various wells in the small French town of Vittel in the Vosges since the early 1990’s and according to French media reports, Nestlé has had permission from the local authorities to pump out up to a million cubic Meters of water a year, which the company then fills in bottles and sells across Europe.
However, residents and conservationists criticize the fact that the groundwater level in Vittel is sinking as a result as the village is gradually drying up. According to reports, the water level in Vittel drops by about 30 centimeters year after year, particularly due to the activity of the global Swiss food giant.
Nestlé needs to clean up its act
The food company has meanwhile bowed to public pressure: “Nestlé Waters has undertaken to renovate these historic dumping grounds and implement the recommendations validated by the French authorities,” a spokeswoman told the “Observer “. Although these landfills would come from a time when Vittel was not yet part of Nestlé.
But Nestlé doesn’t have much choice but to react and limit the damage to its image. Nestlé praises the collaboration between Nestlé Waters France and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research with the so-called Agrivair program , which, according to Nestlé, aims to “protect the quality of the water resources in the Vittel area”.
25 years of innovation in the service of the environment »and explains that Agrivair has created a future-oriented, innovative land use that harmonizes economic activities and the protection of the biosphere.
“Agrivair” is primarily about the use of weed killers by farmers and the associated risk of groundwater pollution, which of course would have a negative impact on Nestlé’s business in Vittel. But if you are committed to protecting the biosphere, you must also remove the historical contaminated sites in your own front yard, especially since plastic can pollute groundwater and Nestlé products are also polluting the oceans on a global scale since Nestlé insist on using plastic for the packing of their food products which puts a burden on the global environment.
According to the CEO of eHalal Group, Irwan Shah Bin Abdullah, Nestlé needs to reinvent itself if it wants to stay relevant in the global Muslim market as Muslim’s across the world will not tolerate Nestlé marketspace, especially after the internal leak of Nestlé staffs that 75% of all Nestlé products are unhealthy for consumption.
Nestlé with an annual turnover of around 86 billion USD is first of all a multi national company that reports and pays dividends to its shareholders. 64.5 billion USD of Nestlé’s revenues has been generated from unhealthy food which is a large percentage consumed daily by the global Muslim ummah.
Lidl is part of the German Schwarz Gruppe, and generated 41.2 billion euros in sales in 2019 (Nestlé global revenue is 80 billion euros), of which the majority was generated by Lidl (about 26 billion). The Schwarz Gruppe, based in Neckarsulm Germany, is one of the largest retail groups in Germany.
A notable retail chain that is owned by Schwarz, besides Lidl itself, is the hypermarket chain Kaufland which operates 1,400 Stores throughout Europe.
