BRITAIN is a bit special, says Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the chief executive of Nestlé. He doesn’t mean it in terms of endearment, more as a place where consumers need to be handled gingerly.

“Not everyone has the same sensibility that you have in the UK. It is very special, higher than in other parts of Europe.”

Higher than just about everywhere, according to data he presented in a speech at the London Business School on corporate social responsibility. The Nestlé chief is no bleeding heart but the company has conducted more than a few public battles over touchy-feely issues, notably the marketing of infant formula milk. Mr Brabeck-Letmathe likes to speak his mind. He doesn’t trot out the clichés of the CSR consultancies and he takes a swipe at the British public’s suspicion of big companies and their behaviour.

“I can only justify it by your colonial history. I think you have a collective bad feeling about the way you have been treating people in the developing world and therefore you are a little more sensitive about it.”

That the suspicion exists and is special is borne out by a survey conducted by Globescan over public trust in a range of companies and organisations, conducted in 21 countries. Asked how well each company fulfilled its responsibility to society, Nestlé scored very positively worldwide but poorly in the UK. In developing nations, such as the Philippines, India, Nigeria and Brazil, Nestlé is regarded as a good corporate citizen. Even in America, where corporate bashing is a popular sport, Nestlé scores highly, level pegging with Toyota in social reputation, well ahead of McDonald’s, Starbucks and Wal-Mart and even trumping Coca-Cola.

Among the 21 countries, only Britain, Australia and Italy give Nestlé the red card, the Italian result probably stemming from a product recall of infant formula last year when traces of ink were found in some tins.

But if the survey is to be believed, the British hate most big corporations; of the 16 multinationals, on balance only three are accorded respect for their social performance, one of which is Microsoft, perhaps related to the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Oxfam and Greenpeace get more respect than most companies.

Pronouncements from the unaccountable and sometimes tiny NGOs have a big impact on public perception, notably Baby Milk Action, which has been conducting a vociferous battle with Nestlé over the marketing of infant formula for years.

It is frustrating for Nestlé but Mr Brabeck-Letmathe isn’t easily browbeaten. The most recent battleground is child labour. Last year, an American NGO, the International Labour Rights Fund (ILRF), launched a court case against Nestlé and two American agribusiness companies, Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill, accusing them of buying cocoa from farms in the Ivory Coast that used child slave labour.

Mr Brabeck-Letmathe rejects the accusation of slavery but admits frankly that there are child labourers. “Children are working in the Ivory Coast, without a doubt. USAid did a survey to identify the scale of child labour and they did not identify child slave labour.” What they did identify, he says, were dangerous conditions, children not going to school, working with pesticides without proper protection and having accidents.

In 2001, members of the cocoa industry agreed the Harkin-Engel protocol, promising to take steps to eradicate the worst child labour. However, cocoa is not farmed on large plantations but in thousands of family smallholdings and the cocoa industry struggled to set up a certification system for suppliers within the deadline set. The ILRF swung into action with writs issued on behalf of two Malian children who claimed they were trafficked and held as slaves in the Ivory Coast.

What can a group such as Nestlé do for consumers who want certainty, about the product, the labour practices, even the quantity of fertiliser used in the fields? Mr BrabeckLetmathe points to Partners Blend, a Nestlé Fairtrade coffee which is, not surprisingly, marketed exclusively in the UK and is certified by the Fairtrade Association. “For those consumers that have a high sensibility, we are reacting and giving them all the assurances. This has a price, of course, and that is what it is all about.”

Nestlé was a reluctant convert to Fairtrade. Partners Blend, which uses beans from Peruvian and Ethiopian growers, was launched last year. However, only a few years ago the company had argued that the Fairtrade principle — the consumer pays a premium over the market price which is paid directly to the grower — risked exacerbating the global oversupply of coffee beans by encouraging uneconomic production. Nestlé then saw its business as stimulating demand for coffee, not tinkering with supply, but it can recognise a successful marketing ploy when it sees one. Fairtrade has captured 10 per cent of the British coffee market and Nestlé now wants a piece of the action.

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