NESTLE TO INTRODUCE LESS SUGAR MILO PRODUCT
Development started last year and before the ‘healthy product’ controversy, says exec
NESTLE will introduce a new Milo product that contains 25 per cent less sugar by end of next month to keep it relevant to Malaysian consumers.
Nestle Malaysia business executive officer of Milo business unit Philomena Tan said the product was developed in the middle of last year — way before the brand received some backlash on social media.
To recap, Malaysian entrepreneur Vishen Lakhiani criticised Nestle for marketing its Milo brand product as a healthy one and disputed its benefits and nutritional value.
He also claimed that Milo was made up of 40 per cent sugar.
“For Nestle, it is crucially important that we stay relevant with our consumers. We had this product in development since last year.
“Before the issue came about, we are already looking at that.
“We realised that as we aged, our tolerance on sugar diminishes, which is why we came out with this product.
“There is actually 25 per cent less sugar compared to the Milo Kosong,” she said in an interview recently.
Tan said Vishen, in his video that has been viewed more than 800,000 times on Facebook, had taken the issue out of context and only spoke half the truth.
“When the whole issue came out at that time, he was picking up on the sentiment of what we already knew before.
“Of course it was taken a little bit out of context because he just basically highlighted whatever it was in terms of sugar, but what he had failed to say is that we do not recommend consumers to consume Milo powder.
“We recommended five teaspoons of Milo for every 200ml serving. That serving only contains six per cent sugar. Out of that six per cent, three per cent is natural sugar, which comes from the milk and malt and the other three per cent is added sugar.”
Milo holds a 90 per cent market share in chocolate flavoured drinks segment.
In the bigger picture, Nestle products made up to 15 per cent of the basket for local shoppers.
Meanwhile, Tan said Nestle was able to be successful in Malaysia for the past 106 years as the company had been able to stay relevant and consistent in terms of offerings to consumers.
She said the Milo brand was now synonymous with sports as Nestle believed sports was “a great teacher” and could get people to be active and healthy.