The new company, called Nestlé Indofood Citarasa Indonesia, will focus primarily on expanding sales in the Indonesian market, but will in time look to export Indonesian food products to other countries.
As of 1 April 2005, the 50-50 joint venture will mange the production of Indofood's various culinary product brands such as Indofood and Piring Lombok, as well as Nestlé's Maggi brand.
Both companies said they believed that they would be able to compete more effectively in Indonesia by joining forces with a dedicated entity and a dedicated team.
Anthoni Salim, president Indofood said that the joint venture would "create opportunities leveraging the strengths of both companies," while Michael Garrett, head of Nestlé's Africa, Middle East, Oceania and Asia Zone, said that the new company was "a great opportunity for Nestlé to broaden its offer".
Indofood's main product is instant noodles, but it also makes a wide range of foods such as flour, edible oils, soy sauce, chilli sauce, tomato sauce and others.