Consumers worldwide can enjoy a new premium Nescafe that uses a blend of soluble and finely ground micro-granulated coffee designed to meet specific tastes in individual countries. This month it has been launched in Brazil as Nescafe Duo Grao.

It was first launched to Japanese consumers as a luxury coffee called Nescafe Koumibaisen last year. In the United Kingdom, it was launched as Nescafe Azera, and as Nescafe Molienda in Mexico. The product aims to reach more consumers in more countries this year.

Nescafe asked researchers at the Nestle Product Technology Centre in Orbe, Switzerland, to help them understand how to match its coffee to consumers’ taste preferences and habits. The researchers found out that consumers in Mexico do not like bitter coffee, but prefer a smoother taste. The Japanese like their coffee stronger and rich in aroma, while the British like a well-balanced coffee taste. Brazilians prefer their coffee with a smooth but aromatic taste.

“From Brazil to J apan, we discovered that consumers have really diverse tastes,” explains Michael Briner of the beverage strategic business unit at Nestle. “Lifestyle, consumption and daily patterns all made a difference so we used our coffee expertise and know-how to tailor the product to each country.”

Nescafe selected a blend of Arabica and Robusta coffee beans to achieve specific tastes, choosing beans that provided a smoother or more bitter taste. The beans are either lightly or deeply roasted to determine the different aromas. The roasted beans are then ground down to micro-granules and blended together with soluble coffee to provide a unique and specifically crafted cup of coffee.

Nestle is investing £110 million in its Nescafe Dolce Gusto factory in the UK, creating 300 new jobs and tripling coffee capsule production. The investment will expand the factory, located in Tutbury in Derbyshire, and its workforce. It is the latest in a series of multi-million pound investments Nestle has made in the UK over the last five years.

These include £200 million to transform its confectionery factory inYork, £40 million to create a European centre of excellence for Nescafe Cappuccino in Cumbria, and most recently, £35 million to build a new water bottling factory in Buxton.

“We are creating our next generation of world class competitive manufacturing facilities,” says Paul Grimwood, chairman and chief executive of Nestle UK and Ireland. “We need to continue to innovate to remain ahead of the market and are committed to the ongoing modernisation of ourUKmanufacturing capabilities.” Nestle employs about 7,000 staff across 19 sites in theUK.

The factory workforce at Tutbury has grown from 160 to 500 employees since 2006 and will increase to 800 by 2013, following the expansion of the site. Some of the 300 new employees at Tutbury will form part of the first intake of the ‘Nestle Academy’. This new initiative will offer young people apprenticeships, graduate programmes and on the job training to help them build a lasting career with Nestle.

The factory in Tutbury is one of only two production sites for Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee capsules in the world. The other is located in Girona, Spain.

The investment will equip the Tutbury factory with 12 new high speed production lines to triple its output. It currently produces about four million capsules a day. More than 90% of the capsules will be exported to more than 38 countries around the world. They will also be sold in the UK. Nestle has invested more than £100 million in the factory over the past five years to strengthen its position as a leading Nescafe production site.

Nestle manufactures a variety of iconic brands in the UK. These include: Kit Kat, the country’s number one selling biscuit, Quality Street confectionery, Nescafe soluble coffee, and Shredded Wheat cereal. The company had sales of SFr3.7 billion (£2.6 billion) in the UK in 2010. Nestle is one of the UK’s major food exporters, selling products worth more than £260 million each year to 50 countries around the world.

Nestle has completed a SFr240 million (Eur195 million) expansion of its soluble coffee factory in Timashevsk, Russia. Located in the Krasnodar region, the site is Nestle’s largest soluble coffee factory in Europe. It is also the company’s biggest investment project in Russia so far.

The factory uses advanced freeze-dry technology to make Nescafe coffee products for consumption in the Russian market and for export to other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Nescafe is the leading soluble coffee brand in Russia; the world’s biggest market for soluble coffee.

The expansion of the Timashevsk site, announced in 2008, has equipped the factory to produce Nescafe Gold freeze-dried coffee from raw material processing through to packing. It will also produce other soluble coffee products including Nescafe Gold Mild, Nescafe Gold Strong, and Nescafe Montego.

The factory, which employs 1,200 people, was alreadyRussia’s first “full-cycle” production site for soluble coffee. It has produced Nescafe Classic coffee ever since the first phase of its construction was completed in 2005.

“This factory is a perfect example of our long-term commitment to Russia and its consumers. It highlights our ongoing investment in the country,” says Paul Bulcke, chief executive of Nestle. “We have invested more than one billion US dollars (around SFr885 million) into manufacturing and distribution facilities in Russia over the past 15 years.”

Russia plays an important role in Nestle’s European operations, particularly in central and eastern Europe. The company’s brands in the country include Comilfo, Nescafe, Mega, Maggi, Perrier and Purina.

Currently, Nestle Russia employs more than 10,000 people and operates 12 production sites, ten sales offices and ten distribution centres. In August this year, the company announced it will invest more than SFr38 million to double pet food production at its Purina PetCare factory in Russia’s Kaluga region. This followed an investment of SFr60 million in 2010 in a new factory for Maggi products in the Vladimir region. The first phase of construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2011.

Nestle will double production of Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee capsules with a SFr64m (Eur50m) investment in a new international production line in Spain, creating 150 new jobs. The new line will form part of the Nescafe Dolce Gusto site at the company’s Nescafe factory in Girona, near Barcelona – the largest Nescafe factory in Europe.

It will increase production to more than 2.5 billion coffee capsules a year by 2012 for export to more than 20 European countries, as well as the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

The SFr192m Nescafe Dolce Gusto site, built in 2008 at Nestle’s existing Nescafe factory in Girona, has achieved record levels of production since operations began last year. It will employ a total of 400 staff by 2012 as production expands to meet growing consumer demand for the Nescafe Dolce Gusto ‘coffee-shop-at-home’ system around the world.

It is the first factory in Spain to meet environmental sustainability requirements for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. A second Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee capsule factory, located in Tutbury in the UK, is already running at full capacity.

The Nescafe Dolce Gusto machine system, which can make both hot and cold drinks, offers 16 varieties of coffee capsules including Cappuccino, Macchiato, Chococino, Cappuccino Ice, Espresso, Lungo and Classico Decaffeinato. Nesquik and Nestea capsules are also compatible with the machines. First launched in Switzerland, Germany and the UK in 2006, Nescafe Dolce Gusto was introduced to Spain in 2007. It is now available in 39 countries, with an annual turnover of SFr450m.

Coca-Cola has retained its leadership of Interbrand’s 11th annual ranking of the ‘Best Global Brands’ beating off competition from the likes of IBM, Microsoft and Google. This is the eleventh consecutive year that Coca-Cola has earned the distinction of being the world’s most valuable brand. Coca-Cola was valued by Interbrand at $70.45b, up 2% on the previous year.

A total of 16 food and drink brands featured in the top 100. Ranked 23rd overall with a brand value of $14.6b, a rise of 3%, Pepsi was the second ranked food and beverage product. Nescafe, with brand value down 4% to $12.8b, was the next highest, followed closely by Budweiser, up 4% to $12.3b.

Other food and beverage brands to make Interbrand’s top 100 league table in descending order were: Kellogg’s (+6% to $11.0b), Heinz (+4% to $7.5b), Nestle (+4% to $6.5b), Danone (+7% to $6.4b), Sprite (no change at $5.8b), Jack Daniels (flat at $4.0b), Moet & Chandon (up 7% to $4.0b), Corona (static at $3.8b), Smirnoff (down 2% to $3.6b), Johnnie Walker (no change at $3.6b), Heineken (flat at $3.5b) and Campbell’s (up 5% to 3.2b), which was ranked 99th overall.

Only Nescafe and Smirnoff actually declined in brand value.

Interbrand, the leading brand consultancy, publishes the ranking of the top 100 brands based on a unique methodology analysing the many ways a brand touches and benefits an organisation, from attracting top talent to delivering on customer expectation. Three key aspects contribute to a brand’s value – the financial performance of the branded products or services, the role of brand in the purchase decision process and the strength of the brand to continue to secure earnings for the company.

In addition to the SFr200m (Eur150m) invested over the past ten years, Nestle will invest SFr500m in coffee projects by 2020. This includes an investment of SFr350m for the Nescafe Plan, which aims to bring under one umbrella Nestle’s commitments on coffee farming, production and consumption. The just launched Nescafe Plan contains a set of objectives which will help Nestle further optimise its coffee supply chain.

The Rainforest Alliance, an international non-governmental organisation, will support Nestle together with other partners of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) and the coffee association, 4C, in meeting the Nescafe Plan objectives related to farming.

Over the next five years, Nestle will double the amount of Nescafe coffee bought directly from farmers and their associations, eventually purchasing 180,000 tonnes of coffee from around 170,000 farmers every year. With the support of the Rainforest Alliance and the 4C Association, all directly purchased green coffee will meet the internationally-recognized 4C sustainability standards by 2015. In addition, 90,000 tonnes of Nescafe coffee will be sourced according to the Rainforest Alliance and Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) principles by 2020.

Under the Nescafe Plan, Nestle will distribute 220 million high-yield, disease-resistant coffee plantlets to farmers by 2020. This helps farmers to rejuvenate their plantations, thus multiplying the yield on existing land and increasing farmers’ income.