A new era for Nestlé

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Don Howat, Nestlé Vice President and Global Category Lead for Nescafé, discusses the evolution of the industry, remaining relevant in a rapidly progressing market, and using AI to power a new era of product development.

When Don Howat secured his first role at Nestlé in 1989, the coffee industry was almost unrecognisable to what it is today. At the time, instant coffee was the norm in the United Kingdom (UK), where Howat was part of the marketing team that helped the Nescafé brand further establish itself as a premium product through a series of memorable television adverts.

“One of the first projects I worked on was the Nescafé love story ad campaign in the late 1980s starring Anthony Head and Sharon Maughan. It became a somewhat iconic series,” Howat tells Global Coffee Report.

“In the three decades that have passed since, there have been some pretty seismic shifts in the coffee industry. We’ve moved away from the times when people would buy roast and ground coffee in a bag and leave it in their cupboard for months or years. Consumers have switched on to the importance of the freshness and quality, which has given rise to hot coffee systems such as Nespresso.”

The emergence of coffee shop culture has also been pivotal, according to the Vice President and Global Category Lead, with Starbucks introducing the notion of tailoring the cup to the customer. It’s opened the door to endless creativity and innovation in the sector. More recently, he says the biggest shift has been the emergence of the cold coffee market.

“Fifteen years ago, if you had offered a European consumer a cold coffee they may not have drunk it. Starbucks and other coffee shops have been pivotal in shifting the mindset on chilled coffee drinks and now it’s being driven by the younger generations. Yet Nescafé remains as relevant today as it has always been, and we see great growth potential in many markets globally,” he says.

“Part of my role now as Global Category Lead for Nescafé is driving our research and development (R&D) department to ensure we are producing global innovations and remaining relevant in the market as trends such as chilled coffee emerge.”

Man on the move

Before being appointed head of Nescafé in 2016 and joining the team at the group’s head offices in Vevey, Switzerland, Howat held positions across the world at the brand’s international offices. He’s lived in Eastern Europe, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and visited more than 60 countries through his role.

“A lot of the work I have done has been introducing Nescafé to developing markets and that’s taken me on a very interesting journey,” he says.

“When I moved from Eastern Europe to Malaysia, it was a shock to swap -20 degrees for Kuala Lumpur’s hot and humid climate. The biggest difference in these moves has been the culture shift, both generally and in the beverage landscape. When I arrived in the Philippines, for example, there was a big chocolate and juice drink culture, while in Malaysia it was a big Milo market.”

One of the company’s main goals over the past few decades has been introducing Nescafé to traditionally non-coffee drinking markets and converting consumers to the joys of coffee. Part of Howat’s role has been embedding himself in these markets and strategising a bespoke plan to grow the brand.

“It’s interesting working in different parts of the world and trying to grow the coffee segment because the challenges are different in each place. The consumers are different and so are their beverage preferences. My job was to understand that and adapt the strategy,” he says.

While each market is unique, he admits there are broad principles that apply to any developing markets when introducing coffee.

“Affordability is important, so this is where we’d look at something such as introducing small pack sizes in a market in which that would make it more affordable. You also have to understand what people are drinking at that moment and what insights can help you unlock coffee,” he says.

Howat believes the final broad key to success is consumer immersion, listening to the audience and learning about the culture to discover the best angle. From this will come a tailored advertising strategy that will have a much better chance of success.

“For example, in Nigeria everyone has a side hustle to complement their income. Coffee is quite a good stimulator and energiser to start the day and think about your side hustle, so we found that was a nice positioning for the role coffee can play in the country,” he says.

Emerging markets

Developing new markets still falls under Howat’s remit, despite his move to HQ. So far in 2025 he’s visited India, Thailand, and China – just three of the markets Nescafé is currently eyeing for expansion.

“Coffee consumption in these countries is much lower than in Europe. India, for example, has a deeply ingrained tea-drinking culture, but more recently coffee consumption has been rising quite rapidly,” he says.

“There is also a huge amount of opportunity in China. Currently, coffee consumption among its almost 1.5 billion population is less than 10 cups per person per year, compared to more than 400 in the UK. That’s a huge number of consumers not drinking coffee.”

Africa is another area of interest for the Nescafé team, as well as Latin America. While Mexico is the brand’s biggest market, Howat believes there are still many markets in the region in which the brand has opportunity to expand.

“We tend to use Mexico as our lighthouse in that part of the world. In Mexico the product is called Nescafé Clasico and the recipe is slightly different as consumers there tend to drink it black with sugar,” he says.

While Howat and his team are constantly exploring regions in which their product can grow, Nescafé is already truly a global brand, officially available in 180 of the 195 countries in the world. Despite this enviable reach, each Nescafé product is tailored to the market in which it’s sold.

“In developing markets, the products tend to be a little milder in strength and over time they may gradually become more robust. We do a lot of work in sensory insight and understanding the preparation methods generally used in that region,” says Howat.

“And then in established regions, tastes often change over time, so we have to adapt the recipes. When I was growing up in the UK, my mother prepared coffee on the stove with milk instead of water, and three spoons of sugar. Today, people in the UK have moved to used hot water and skimmed milk, and broadly don’t add sugar. Our coffee has had to adapt to these shifts in preparation.”

Like all businesses in the industry, Nescafé has had to navigate the recent volatility in the coffee market. Producing a product with such a distinct flavour that is loved by so many consumers, its unique challenge has been keeping the product consistent during supply and demand imbalances.

“In my career I’ve been through many of the coffee pricing cycles. I’ve witnessed frosts in Brazil drive prices up and then seen them tumble back down again. What’s been unusual this time is the sustained increase,” Howat says.

“In regard to sourcing, we have flexibility to explore different origins that can provide similar taste profiles for our blends. The priority is to have a consistent taste that gives us flexibility to navigate the current economic context.

“On coffee market dynamics, things are a little volatile at the moment so it’s difficult to predict where they will go in the future.”

Howat believes Nescafé has in fact done quite well over the past few years, despite the market volatility, because it provides “a very affordable cup of coffee” compared to purchasing out of home.

“We have focused on our communication and reminding consumers there are 55 cups of coffee in a regular jar,” he says.

“We also try as much as possible to find cost savings all the way through our supply chain. A huge part of my job over the past years has been looking at the areas in which we can be more efficient.”

Cold comfort

Another key part of Howat’s current role is overseeing Nescafé’s global innovation. With R&D centres around the world, the brand aims to be at the forefront of technology and innovation to continue to improve its products. A new element of the process that he’s particularly excited about is the integration of AI tools to generate fast prototype ideas.

“Integrating the use of AI in R&D has been a huge learning curve for us. We use AI to scour social media and other sources to identify global trends, which is much more efficient than a person doing it manually,” he says.

“We also use AI to write concepts. Previously, we would all stand around a flip chart to try and craft the wording. Now, we simply need to input the key words we want to include and then refine the results. It’s much faster and more effective.”

While AI has been beneficial in the R&D process, Howat stresses the human element is still integral.

“It’s the questions asked and the input that’s fed to the computer that directs the quality of the material the AI program produces,” he says.

“Using this technology has allowed us to speed up the product development process. That’s another thing that has changed almost completely during my career – it used to take a relatively long time to launch a new product, while now an idea can be turned into a product in a matter of months.”

He highlights Nescafé’s Espresso Concentrate as one of the new launches that has benefited from the company’s accelerated R&D process.

“Within a few months of coming up with the idea, we were testing it in Kroger grocery stores in the United States (US). Within six months, after making some tweaks, we had a fully packaged product that was ready for market. If you’d asked me a few years ago, I would have said that’s impossible,” he says.

The brand’s line of liquid concentrate coffees was developed in response to the emerging international preference for chilled coffee beverages. Howat says it’s hard to predict the trends that will stick and those that will fade.

“There are some trends you follow that turn out to be quite small and others you start to get the feeling are going to be big,” he says.

“We had started to see liquid concentrates emerge in the US and China, and these were two of the first countries we launched the product in.”

Another area of opportunity is functional beverages, such as collagen, protein, and mushroom coffees.

“It’s an interesting space, but the key is working out if it’s going to remain niche or become a much bigger trend. There’s no hard and fast rule when identifying trends.”

As well as looking to social media for these emerging trends, the brand also pays close attention to the independent and specialty coffee markets. In fact, as part of its R&D team, Nescafé employs a champion barista who regularly comes into the lab to share the latest updates and trends from the specialty scene.

Sustainability in action

When looking to the future of the business, Howat is eager for Nescafé to continue its sustainability efforts and gain more recognition for the projects it has established and supports.

“Sustainability has been part of our DNA for the past 30 years. For example, at origin we have many agronomists on the ground advising on how to improve yield, practices, and the conditions for farmers,” he says.

“Something that makes us unique is our R&D centre in Tours, France, that’s dedicated to developing more climate-resilient coffee varieties. We have distributed millions of plantlets to farmers across the world.”

In 2022, Nestlé launched Nescafé Plan 2030 as a roadmap to help drive regenerative agriculture, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve farmers’ livelihoods. As part of the plan, the brand has pledged to invest more than CHF1 billion (US$1.14 billion) over eight years. 

“My hope over the next few years is that we can bring our sustainability ambitions to life for our consumers,” he says. “I also hope to continue to surprise people with our innovations and make the most of our amazing R&D team.”

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