Nestle Chair says CEO change was prompted by growth concerns
Nestle's CEO Mark Schneider, left, and Nestle chairman Paul Bulcke, right, speak during the general meeting of the world's biggest food and beverage company, Nestle Group, on April 18, 2024.
Keystone / Laurent Gillieron
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Nestle Chair says CEO change was prompted by growth concerns
The abrupt replacement of Nestle SA’s chief executive officer was prompted by worries over the food and beverage company’s growth outlook, Nestlé Chair Paul Bulcke told Swiss newspaper Le Temps.
“We looked at the market share development and asked ourselves whether the group’s growth engine and operational execution were still working perfectly,” Bulcke said in an interview published on Saturday. “There were difficult times with Covid, geopolitical issues, inflation. We had to act quickly.”
Vevey, Switzerland, based Nestle, maker of products from bottled water and coffee to ice cream to pet food, announced on Thursday that Mark Schneider would make way after eight years as CEO for company veteran Laurent Freixe, after the firm’s recent performance raised questions over profitability targets.
Bulcke didn’t address the firm’s guidance, currently set at an underlying operating margin of at least 17.5% for 2025.
Bulcke said there’s “no major restructuring” planned as a result of the leadership change.
“The focus will be mainly on stimulating the current portfolio and organic growth,” he said. “Mergers and acquisitions are there to complement a strategy to strengthen our portfolio and are not the heart of the strategy.”
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Alpine Environment
My grandmother has lived in the same Swiss village for 100 years
Bodycams: essential for good law enforcement, or a privacy risk?
Did you ever come across bodycams in your place of residence and if so, how do you think the use of bodycams alter the relationship between the public and (transport) police?
What can be done to protect biodiversity in your country?
Swiss voters are set to decide on a people’s initiative calling for better protection of ecosystems in the country. Have your say on the September 22 vote.
Four out of five donor hearts for Swiss children come from abroad
This content was published on
Four out of five donor hearts which are transplanted into Swiss children come from outside the Alpine country, according to the director of Swisstransplant.
Climber dies on the Matterhorn in southern Switzerland
This content was published on
A climber died on Thursday after falling with a partner while descending the Matterhorn, near Zermatt, in southern Switzerland. The other mountaineer suffered minor injuries.
This content was published on
The Dalai Lama has arrived in Switzerland for a short visit. Hundreds of Tibetans welcomed him at an airport hotel in Opfikon, near Zurich, on Friday.
Sudan: Swiss among mediators calling for continuous flow of aid
This content was published on
The seven parties, including Switzerland, who led ten days of talks on Sudan in the Geneva region, are calling for the new flow of aid to “continue and accelerate”.
Coo d’état: Basel struggles to enforce pigeon-feeding ban
This content was published on
Police in the Swiss canton of Basel City have issued only eight fines since the ban on pigeon feeding came into force in July 2020.
Nestlé CEO Schneider was ousted, paving way for veteran Freixe, sources say
This content was published on
Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider was ousted in a sudden move by the world’s biggest foodmaker as a result of the group’s underperformance.
This content was published on
Two people died in a paragliding accident on the summit of the Breithorn in Valais, southwestern Switzerland, on Wednesday.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.