Nestle, one of the biggest food companies in the world, don announce big changes in their leadership and organization because their sales no dey grow as expected. The new CEO, Laurent Freixe, wey take over from Mark Schneider on September 1, say the company go reduce their sales growth expectations for 2024 to just 2%.
Freixe, who before now dey head Nestle’s Latin America unit, say consumer demand don weaken for recent months, and dem expect say the demand environment go remain soft. Nestle report say for the first nine months of the year, their sales total 67.1 billion Swiss francs ($77.4 billion), which be a 2.4% drop from the same period last year.
The company also announce several changes in their leadership structure. Dem go merge their Latin America and North America divisions into one single Americas unit, and their Greater China region go become part of their Asia, Oceania and Africa zone. These changes include a reshuffling of the executive board, with the aim of making the company more lean and focused on consumers and customers.
Analysts say the new CEO dey impose his own style on the company with a “very painful reset for Nestle, unprecedented in recent history”. Jean-Philippe Bertschy, analyst at Vontobel, say the task of bringing Nestle back to its roots and reconnecting with consumers go take time and no be easy.
Nestle also face challenges with their brands, including Nescafe coffee and Kit-Kat wafer snacks, where dem need to revive innovation and marketing to win back investor confidence. The company had cut too deeply into marketing and innovation budgets in the past, which affect their sales.
