Nestlé’s new CEO, Laurent Freixe, undertakes significant restructuring to address weaker sales and improve future performance.
- Freixe combines regional zones and reshuffles the executive team aiming for streamlined decision-making and enhanced global initiatives.
- Despite a 2% sales growth, Nestlé cuts its annual forecast from 3% to 2%, following successive downgrades.
- The company’s strategic shift includes a focus on digital transformation and direct executive reporting.
- Freixe reassures stakeholders that Nestlé is operational and poised for future success.
In a decisive move to tackle slowing sales, Nestlé’s chief executive, Laurent Freixe, has initiated a comprehensive restructuring of the company’s global operations. Appointed only last month, Freixe is already making waves by integrating Zone Latin America with Zone North America and expanding the Zone Asia, Oceania, and Africa to include the Greater China Region. This reshuffle is part of an overarching strategy aimed at making the executive structure leaner and facilitating faster decision-making while driving global initiatives.
The implications of these changes are significant, touching on both internal management and broader market strategies. Freixe emphasizes the importance of these structural adjustments by stating, “All the leaders of key units driving our performance and our transformation will now report directly to me.” This reform underscores a deliberate shift toward enhanced accountability and efficiency within Nestlé’s organizational matrix.
Despite achieving a modest 2% rise in underlying sales for the first nine months of the year, the company has revised its full-year growth expectation to 2%, down from a previously adjusted forecast of 3%. The revision is a reflection of ongoing challenges, including faster-than-anticipated price normalization, which has impacted Nestlé’s performance metrics.
Freixe’s restructuring plan also involves a notable push towards the digital transformation of the company. By adopting real-time, end-to-end connected data and AI capabilities, Nestlé aims to foster innovation and expand its market share more aggressively. These technological advancements are envisioned as a catalyst for accelerating the company’s overall performance and competitiveness.
Addressing concerns over the company’s trajectory, Freixe assured stakeholders that “Nestlé is not broken, Nestlé is up and running. And we will make sure that all this potential is realized going forward.” Such assertions aim to instill confidence in the ongoing efforts to harness Nestlé’s full potential.
Nestlé’s strategic restructuring under Laurent Freixe is poised to address current sales challenges while positioning the company for future success.
