Nestle India ties up with Snapdeal for Maggi comeback

Nestle India has announced that its instant Maggi noodles will be back on shelves and sold on e-commerce giant, Snapdeal starting from Monday, in a BSE filing.

The news comes as much of a relief to Maggi lovers, after the noodles were unceremoniously taken off the shelves and stop production in June, after tests conducted by certain laboratories across the country found monosodium glutamate (MSG) and lead in large quantities, way beyond permissible limits.

Commenting on the roll out of Maggi noodles, Suresh Narayan, Chairman and Managing Director of Nestle India, said, “Maggi has a very special relationships and strong emotional bonds with its consumers across the country, and I am confident that our bonds will grow even stronger.

“Separately, Nestle India is pleased to partner with Snapdeal to roll out online offers to mark this special occasion”, he added.

On October 26, Nestle announced that it was resuming the production of Maggi at three plants- at Nanjangud in Karnataka, at Moga in Punjab and at Bicholim in Goa- after being cleared by three NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) accredited labs, as mandated by the Bombay High Court.

“Most states do not have a ban on the sale of Maggi noodles. For states where specific directions are required, we are engaging with them,” Nestle India said in a release.

Nestle is also working at resuming manufacturing of Maggi Noodles at its two other plants – Tahliwal and Pantnagar.

“…for the other two locations at Tahliwal and Pantnagar, we are engaging with the relevant authorities in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand to obtain directions for commencing manufacture of MAGGI Noodles,” he added.

Reeling under the Maggi ban, Nestle India had on October 29 reported a 60.1% decline in standalone net profit at Rs 124.20 crore for the third quarter ended September 2015.

Its net sales had declined 32.12% to Rs 1,736.20 crore as against Rs 2,557.80 crore of the July-September quarter a year ago.

In the quarter after the ban, the company reported a standalone loss of Rs 64.40 in April-June, its first quarterly loss in the last 15 years, due to the ban on Maggi.

The Maggi issue has also impacted the bottomline of the parent firm Nestle SA. The Swiss FMCG major reported a 2.5% decline in its consolidated net profit at 4.51 billion Swiss Franc for the first half of 2015.

Nestle sales in Asia, Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa (AOA) markets were “overshadowed” by the issue in India, the company has said.