One Of The World's Best-Selling Coffee Brands Also Makes KitKats And Toll House Cookies

It may come as a surprise that most of the food brands you know and love aren't really separate brands at all, but are all owned by a single parent company. For example, the Hershey's Company owns dozens of brands from Reese's to Skinny Pop, and General Mills owns similarly as many with brands from Betty Crocker to Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Nestlé may be most known today for its best-selling coffee brand Nescafé, but it also produces Hot Pockets, Gerber baby food, and even Purina dog food.

In the Nestlé coffee department, there is, of course, Nescafé, but the company is also responsible for Coffee-Mate creamers, Roastelier, Starbucks Coffee at Home, and the famous Nespresso brand. Created by chemist Dr. Max Morgenthaler, Nescafé was revolutionary for instant coffee when it hit store shelves in 1938, expanding to over 30 countries in just two years. One of the 15 facts you need to know about Nestlé is that Nescafé is still widely considered one of the biggest coffee brands in the world, with a staggering 5,500 cups consumed every second of the day, according to Nestlé. You can also thank Nestlé for the creation of several sweet-toothed brands beyond coffee products, such as KitKats, Toll House cookie dough and chocolate chips, Drumsticks, Nesquik, Aero bars, and even Cheerios, some of which are among the 17 most popular brands owned by Nestlé. 

Headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, the Nestlé Group started creating chocolate in 1904 under the Nestlé name, after German pharmacist Henri Nestlé. When Nescafé coffee launched 34 years later, the company had seen a handful of years with a steady rise in sales, but World War II caused the brand to boom, and the instant coffee was soon included with CARE aid supplies. In 1986, Nestlé made waves in the coffee market again with the launch of Nespresso, which began with only four coffee variety pods but has since expanded to dozens. In 2025, Nestlé reported about $110.09 billion in total sales, according to its full-year results for 2025, wherein roughly $7.97 billion came from Nespresso alone, easily explaining why Nespresso is the pod coffee maker brand that ranks highest in customer satisfaction.

Nestlé's first big acquisition came in 1929 when it purchased the Peter-Cailler-Kohler chocolate company, and by the time the 1980s rolled around, Nestlé had a more aggressive strategy of acquiring other brands. Carnation and Coffee-Mate joined the coffee portfolio in 1986, and other brands such as KitKat, After Eight, and Smarties came under the Nestlé umbrella in 1988. In 2018, Nestlé acquired the rights to Starbucks Coffee at Home and the ability to "market Starbucks consumer and foodservice products globally, outside of the company's coffee shops," according to a press release, rounding out its current coffee portfolio.