FDBusiness.com

Nestle is creating a new service centre in Ukraine to facilitate its continued expansion in the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe.

The world’s biggest food group will invest SFr25m (Eur19m ) over three years to establish the Shared Service Centre in the Ukrainian city of L’viv. The new facility will support more than 20 countries in the region such as Russia, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria.

L’viv was chosen for its location due to its local transport infrastructure, employee talent potential, real estate and office space availability. In addition, the city is also home to Nestle’s Svitoch confectionery factory.

The L’viv centre is set to become the third internal Shared Service Centre worldwide led by Nestle Business Services (NBS) – an international unit under the Nestle umbrella that performs a standardised and cost-effective way of running financial and HR services.

The centre will reflect the model of two other internal NBS Shared Service Centres that support the Latin American region and the Asia, Oceania, Middle East and South Africa region – with a centre based in Ribeirao Preto in Brazil since 2006, and a centre in the Philippine capital, Manila, since 2008.

At the Brazil centre, around 400 employees support 21 Latin American countries in financial services and employee services focusing exclusively on accounting activities, HR administration and payroll. While in the Philippines, a workforce of around 550 employees support countries from Australia to Vietnam in the same categories.

Bringing together financial and human resources transactional activities as a single entity, the L’viv centre will be the first of its kind to make its mark in Central and Eastern Europe.

NBS aims to form partnerships with some of the 12 universities in the L’viv region to develop specific curriculums including foreign languages and international finance, to align with the Shared Services industry. As part of this goal, Nestlé has already commenced talks with Ivan Vakachuk, Rector of L’viv National University.

Mainly focused on business, law and management, the university partnerships will follow similar learning initiatives already implemented by Nestle in Malaysia. Since 2006, the Malaysian programme has focused on the development of local Nestle executives into first line managers. This has upgraded workforce competencies in order to meet the needs of the company and challenges of the global market.

Nestle in Ukraine

Established in 1994 with its head office in Kiev, Nestle has built up a strong presence in Ukraine over the past 16 years and currently employs 4,500 people there. Acquiring confectionery brand Svitoch in 1998 and culinary brand Torchyn in 2003, Nestle Ukraine also offers internationally recognised brands such as Nescafe, Nesquik, Nuts, Kit Kat and Lion.

In January 2010, Nestle acquired Ukrainian brand Mivina, a market leader in instant noodles, instant mashed potato and dehydrated seasonings. The acquisition enables Nestle to complement its culinary portfolio in Ukraine and boost its presence in one of the fastest growing segments of the Ukrainian food market.