Nestle still operating in Russia. Could / should George Clooney put some pressure on them to cease trading?

I appreciate George only gets millions every year for Nespresso, not the whole of Nestle, but does he have some clout there? And if so, should he - could he even? - apply some pressure to them to pull out trading in Russia?

[size=49]Nestlé CEO accused of aiding the killing of ‘defenseless children and mothers’ by refusing to stop doing business in Russia[/size]

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Nestlé could be facing a consumer boycott after the government in Kyiv claimed Europe’s most valuable company was complicit in the death of innocent civilians in Ukraine.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reached out directly to chief executive Mark Schneider to convince him to pull out of a market that accounts for just 2% of the Swiss food group’s global revenue, only to admit failure.
“Unfortunately he shows no understanding,” the head of government wrote in a post that received over 50,000 likes.
“Paying taxes to the budget of a terrorist country means killing defenseless children and mothers.” 

In response, social media quickly began circulating charts detailing which exact brands belong to Nestlé in order to inform consumers what products to avoid during their next trip to the grocery store.
A spokesperson for Nestlé declined to comment on Shmyhal’s remarks, citing conversations with government authorities, while laying out the measures the company has taken thus far [size=15]to limit its business dealings in Russia. [/size]





With the war entering its 23rd day, pressure is rising for the international community to take more robust action as whole cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol are leveled by artillery bombardment and 3 million refugees flee the fighting.
Even though the European Union is currently drafting up its fifth package of sanctions, [size=15]Western corporations are continuing to be singled out for acting in bad faith.

Mykhailo Fedorov, a deputy to Shmyhal who secured Elon Musk’s help to maintain internet service, argued Germany’s SAP “murders Ukrainian children” by continuing to license out its business software to state-controlled Gazprom and Sberbank.

Early on British energy group BP decided to divest its stake in Russian petroleum giant Rosneft, whose exports directly finance Putin’s military operations. Yet the moral imperative of exiting Russia becomes increasingly gray the closer a company comes to providing basic needs to the population at large.[/size]

It highlights the precarious situation faced by Nestlé and other consumer branded goods companies like [size=15]Coca-Cola that sell staples, soft drinks, or even nutrition for pets. 

While Unilever said on March 8 it would continue to supply “everyday essential food and hygiene products made in Russia” to the population, it suspended all imports into and exports out of the country and pledged not to invest or advertise in the country. 

“Nor will we profit from our presence in Russia,” its CEO, Alan Jope, said in a statement.

Shmyhal’s harshly worded accusation leveled at Nestlé was followed hours later by his cabinet colleague from the foreign office, who also singled out the Swiss group for particular shame.

“By refusing to stop business activities in Russia, Nestlé allows Russia’s war of aggression in Europe to continue,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote in another widely shared post, warning the company of “enormous” long-term reputational damage.[/size]

Nestlé is [size=15]no stranger to controversy, or to boycotts.

Perhaps the most famous call to ditch its products came from 1977 until 1984 after it tried to persuade mothers in emerging countries to switch from nursing to baby formula that often was mixed with polluted water.

Hedge fund manager and Russia expert Bill Browder blasted Nestlé’s decision to turn down Shmyhal’s personal entreaty: “What more needs to be said?” 

At the end of the day, however, cold hard business calculations typically win out.

When asked why one major European industrial group decided to continue to operate in Russia while its competitors were either pulling out or mothballing operations, a company source told Fortune privately, “They don’t control 30% of the market like we do.”[/size]

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Mm, very long report on their continued relationship and supplies to Russia on the Beeb last night, and I wondered how quietly he would be working in the background what with the connections with the Ukraine some years ago and with Bill Browder and all human rights lawyers and activists, and Geoffrey Robertson QC. The Nestle connection must be wrankling for him, and to be honest I think he's stepping back - no big TV ads of late.

Interestingly I happened to catch a bit of the last Magnitsky Human Rights Awards on Youtube few days ago and there was reference to the Clooney Foundation at about 12 minutes in....

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PAN - Maybe not airing in the UK, but George has a new Nespresso ad that's been playing here for the last week or so.

I don't know what he could say to Nestle that a lot of others haven't already said. Their priority seems to be profit over all.

I imagine he must be feeling pretty conflicted at the moment, given that the new ad campaign in the US was probably filmed sometime ago and was part I think of a contract he and Grant signed a while back............pre the child labour story.....

It seems like every few months or so there' another reason for George to either protest or end his association with Nestle, and yet he's still there. If the ads running now were made a while ago I guess there's nothing he can do about it, but maybe going forward he could refuse to do any more.

I wonder how much damage a contract violation like that (if it is one) would do to him. And I wonder if it would have any impact on Nestle. They could always find another spokesperson

Am I right in thinking that George uses the money from Nespresso to fund the satellite? So maybe he reasons that a bad thing is cancelled out by a good thing? I dunno.

Not sure if the money still funds the satellite or if it goes into his foundation - or maybe somewhere else. Whatever, it's his business. I do think that using a bad guy's assets to do good things is better than just walking away.

PAN - They probably would have taken even longer to decide what to do if they were making more money. I have mixed feelings about any company that wants to supply food (whether in Ukraine
or Russia) or keep their employees working as a means of survival.

 I know that the more pain the Russian people feel, the more likely they are to oppose Putin's war - and that helping them could prolong the conflict. But they aren't the ones who wanted this war, so starving them out is just as bad as starving the Ukrainians.

I guess there are no easy answers.

I read that Nestle have pulled most of their business from Russia now. Took them a while to get round to it!