Baku, Azerbaijan, Sep. 10
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:
Azerbaijani market is of high priority for Nestle, the head of the company's business in the South Caucasus and Turkmenistan Alexander Novikov told Trend.
Nestle Azerbaijan LLC, which was established in 2014, demonstrates a steady increase in sales. Since the company's launch, the number of its employees has doubled and today includes the entire range of managerial specialties - from marketers to logisticians.
"Nestle has been present in the Azerbaijani market for more than 20 years, offering consumers high-quality food and beverages. According to an independent research agency, Nestle holds a leading position in the category of instant coffee with NESCAFE brand, in chocolate products with KitKat and Nestle brands, in cocoa drinks with Nesquik and so on," Novikov said.
Being the world's largest producer of food and beverages, Nestle constantly analyzes market trends and studies consumers' needs in order to provide them with the products most in demand and corresponding to local preferences.
"Every year, Nestle offers its Azerbaijani consumers new categories and innovative products. So, in July 2018 we launched a category of delicious and healthy porridges under the brand "Bystrov" in Azerbaijan, and just a few days ago we introduced "KitKat Senses", a unique chocolate bar," Novikov Novikov added.
Nestlé's representative stressed that presently Azerbaijan is the largest country by population in the South Caucasus region, with a stable political and economic situation and the local market demonstrates a positive growth dynamics.
"The efforts of the Azerbaijani government to stabilize economic indicators, as well as the measures taken by the country's leadership to combat bureaucratic barriers, allow talking about improvements in the business climate and increase of investment attractiveness," Novikov said.
According to him, macroeconomic indicators, also prove these facts: international rating agencies note positive changes in the country's economy and in particular, Standard & Poor's forecasts Azerbaijan's average GDP growth at the level of three percent until 2022. Inflation is also expected to decrease in the medium term.
"Nevertheless, there are certain difficulties that a business faces in daily operations. For example, the imperfection in legislation, which is, in some cases has not been updated since the times of the USSR, a shortage of qualified personnel and insufficient technological development. We hope that further liberalization of the economy, as well as reforms in education, tax and labor spheres, will be realized and will allow Azerbaijan to compete with European countries," Novikov added.
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