“I confirm that we have decided to end our partnership with the IAAF Kids Athletics programme with immediate effect,” Nestlé spokeswoman Lydia Meziani told AFP in an email.
“This decision was taken in light of negative publicity associated with allegations of corruption and doping in sport made against the IAAF,” she added.
Nestlé, the world's largest food company, became in 2012 the main sponsor of a programme aimed at promoting athletics for youths worldwide.
But Meziani said Nestle decided to “terminate (its) existing relationship with the IAAF” because a continued partnership “could negatively impact our reputation and image.”
The IAAF is facing crises on multiple fronts, including widespread allegations of corruption and bribery under disgraced former boss Lamine Diack.
Separately, world athletics' new boss Sebastian Coe has faced criticism following Russia's ban from the sport for what a commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) described as “state-sponsored” doping.
WADA's report claimed that the IAAF governing council must have known about corruption orchestrated by Diack, and about doping in Russia.
Since the scandals broke, Coe has been travelling the globe, notably in Asia, where he has sought to shore up support for IAAF, hoping to ease the concerns of corporate backers weary of being tied to a tainted organisation.
Speaking in Tokyo on Monday, Coe said “the journey back to trust is one of an uncertain length, but we have to make changes.”
Nestle said it had informed the Monaco-based IAAF of its decision and would “await a formal acknowledgement from them that our partnership has ended”.
The defection of Switzerland-based Nestle as a sponsor came after the IAAF admitted last month that it was battling to retain corporate backing, amid reports that Adidas was also walking away.
The deal with the German sportswear giant signed in 2008 and reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars was due to run until 2019.
Independent investigations have found that corruption was embedded in the IAAF during the tenure of Diack, a Senegalese national now facing criminal charges in France.
There was no immediate comment from the IAAF on Nestle's decision.
NESTLE
Nestlé drops sponsorship of athletics body over scandal
Swiss-based food giant Nestlé has terminated a sponsorship programme with world athletics' governing body (IAAF) over fears that the corruption and doping scandals surrounding the sport could damage the company's reputation, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
NESTLE
‘Unlimited resources’: Switzerland’s Nestle goes vegan
Swiss food giant Nestle, which has made billions with dairy products, said Monday it will host start-ups that want to develop vegetarian alternatives.
Nestle could thus find itself at the forefront of a sector that has strong growth potential, an analyst commented.
It plans to open its research and development (R&D) centre in Konolfingen, Switzerland to “start-ups, students and scientists” a statement said.
In addition to testing sustainable dairy products, the group plans to encourage work on plant-based dairy alternatives, it added.
Chief executive Mark Schneider was quoted as saying that “innovation in milk products and plant-based dairy alternatives is core to Nestle's portfolio strategy.”
The group unveiled a vegetable-based milk that had already been developed with the process, and technical director Stefan Palzer told AFP it planned to focus on 100-200 such projects a year.
Jon Cox, an analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux, noted that while Nestle had missed some consumer trends in the past, it has now “taken something of a lead in the plant-based alternative market for food”.
And “given its pretty much unlimited resources, Nestle is going to come out one of the winners in the space,” Cox forecast in an e-mail.
Nestle said that “internal, external and mixed teams” would work at the R&D centre over six-month periods.
Nestle would provide “expertise and key equipment such as small to medium-scale production equipment to facilitate the rapid upscaling of products for a test launch in a retail environment,” it added.
The Swiss food giant has long been known for its dairy products, but faced a boycott in the 1970s for allegedly discouraging mothers in developing countries from breastfeeding even though it was cheaper and more nutritious than powdered formula.
On Monday, the group's statement also underscored that the research initiative was part of its commitment to help fight global warming.
“As a company, we have set ambitious climate goals. This is part of our promise to develop products that are good for you and good for the planet,” it said.
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