The US formula shortage: our response

The background

The US formula shortage has impacted countless families across the country. We quickly recognised that we had a responsibility to respond, as our compass guides us to ‘put people and consumers first’.

So, we did what we always do – collaborate, harness the power of our partnerships and move with agility. All while keeping quality at the heart of everything, in order to give babies the best start in life.

Our response

In the US, we boosted supply to allow us to feed an additional 211,000 more infants than before the shortage. Our colleagues were working around the clock, with sites operating 24/7. All of this meant that we were able to ship over 30% more product in the US in Q1 and cut our time to market by about 40%.

We engaged at the highest levels of the US government, meeting with the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and even President Biden himself, providing testimony at a US Congressional hearing on the formula shortage.

A monumental next step

On 15 June, we received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to import the equivalent of over 66 million 8-oz servings of base infant formula powder from our world-class facility in Tuas, Singapore.

This is monumental move, as the US has never allowed formula to be imported ever before and this represents the biggest contribution from an established US brand.

We achieved approval to unlock additional capacity and got to work.

The results so far

More than 418,000 pounds of infant formula base powder are now on their way to 50,000 stores across the US. This will be the largest shipment of infant formula to the US by any company.

Together, we’re stepping up to curb this shortage as quickly as possible. And this is just the start, as we’re continuing to scale operations in order to protect, heal and nurture infants across the US – and beyond.