The transfer of power was swift. As quick as tasting a Nespresso coffee. Officially, on Sunday 1is September, Frenchman Laurent Freixe took over the reins of Swiss food giant Nestlé, owner of the famous coffee brand, just ten days after the announcement of the surprise departure of his predecessor, German Ulf Mark Schneider.
As a sign of the speed of this ouster, the “fireside chat” organized jointly with Barclays on August 30, during which the CEO of the Vevey group was to speak, was hastily canceled.
Mr Freixe was ready to take over. His name had already been circulating in the summer of 2016, when Nestlé was looking for a successor to Paul Bulcke, who wanted to give up his position as CEO to become chairman of the board. Except that a candidate from outside the group had been preferred.
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Eight years later, his in-depth knowledge of the multinational, acquired over a thirty-eight-year career during which he climbed the ranks, until becoming head of the Latin American zone, is on the contrary seen as a major asset.
He will have to “mobilize” the 270,000 employees of the world’s number one food company, “aligning them behind specific actions with discipline and in the right direction, within a strategy focused on nutrition, health and well-being”, Mr. Bulcke hammered home, listing the challenges that Mr. Freixe will have to face, during a speech to analysts, the day after the decision to change the captain of the Swiss liner.
Faced with the wave of inflation
The chairman of the board therefore seems to expect greater efficiency in execution from this casting, rather than a complete overhaul of the strategy – and trusts the new CEO, who has been on the executive committee for sixteen years, to re-energize Nestlé.
This call for mobilization of troops has a clear and repeated objective: the agri-food giant must return to marked organic growth. The same line of conduct had been set, in 2016, for Mr. Schneider. The group then wanted to return to the Nestlé model of an annual increase of 5% to 6% of its activity, accompanied by an increase in margins.
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During his term in office, the German boss has profoundly reorganized the portfolio of the Vevey group. This was done by selling off in turn the American confectionery, the life insurance subsidiary, the dermatological care business and the bottled water in the United States, while making acquisitions in the food supplement, vitamin and coffee sectors, as well as forming an alliance with Starbucks.
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