Nestlé/L’Oréal in beauty food deal

Cosmetics giant to provide staff and marketing for appearance-boosting ‘functional foods’

Nestlé and L’Oréal are planning to set up a joint venture to develop “functional food” to enhance consumers’ physical appearances.

Subject to regulatory approval, the new venture will be called Laboratoires INNEOV, and will market its products under the brand name INNEOV. The venture will be based in France, with each parent company holding a 50 per cent stake.

Nestlé says the move is an industry first, and that the venture will make nutritional supplements “to improve the quality of skin, hair and nails by supplying nutrients essential to their physiology”. It has not yet been decided what form the food will take.

A Nestlé spokesman says the venture will benefit from the scientific knowledge of both sides, but will be staffed mainly by L’Oréal employees. He says that the marketing is likely to be left to L’Oréal as “we have no experience in marketing cosmetics”.

He adds: “This is the first time a food company and a cosmetics company have worked together like this.”

The spokesman says that he believes other companies may follow suit with similar tie-ups.