By Dave Graham,Shubham Kalia
Copyright reuters
SummaryCompaniesPaul Bulcke to hand over to Pablo Isla on October 1Moved forward by six months as Nestle seeks fresh startCompany hit by management turmoil and flagging sales
ZURICH, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Nestle (NESN.S), opens new tab said on Tuesday its chairman Paul Bulcke would hand over to former Inditex CEO Pablo Isla on October 1, accelerating a changing of the guard at the Swiss food giant after an unprecedented period of managerial turmoil.
The decision comes just two weeks after Laurent Freixe was abruptly fired as CEO over an undisclosed relationship, and clears the way for new CEO Philipp Navratil and Isla to take full charge of the company that has struggled in recent years as sales growth stalled and debt rose.
Advertisement · Scroll to continue
Questions were raised about Bulcke’s position by analysts and shareholders following the revelations about Freixe’s romantic relationship with a subordinate, which led to his ouster just a year after he had taken the reins at the maker of KitKat chocolate bars and Nescafe coffee.
HANDOVER MOVED FORWARD BY SIX MONTHS
In a brief statement, Bulcke said the Vevey-based company was well positioned for the future as he moved forward the handover that had previously been scheduled for April next year.
“This is the right moment for me to step aside and accelerate the planned transition,” Bulcke, who will take on the role of ‘honorary chairman’, said in a statement, adding the new leadership would bring a “fresh perspective”.
Advertisement · Scroll to continue
Investors and analysts have said incoming chair Isla showed strong leadership at Zara owner Inditex.
Nestle faces a stern challenge with investors and analysts urging it to slim down in a tough consumer market as rivals cut costs and even break up to improve their performance.
Sales growth has stalled, the company’s shares have lost over 40% since 2022 and costs have ballooned. Debt levels have climbed past those of rivals such as Unilever.
Nestle said in June that Bulcke would step down next year, a move that followed rising investor unease over the firm’s share price performance, leadership issues and concerns that its corporate governance model was out of date.
Bulcke’s shareholder backing had also been declining.
In April, he was re-elected with 84.8% shareholder support, below the level chairs usually get in Switzerland. In 2017, he received almost 96% backing.
Ad Break Coming Up
NEXT StayNext
OffEnglish
180p288p360p480p540p576p720pHD1080pHDAuto (180p)
About ConnatixV2042565979
About ConnatixV2042565979
Continue watchingafter the adVisit Advertiser websiteGO TO PAGE
Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru and Dave Graham in Zurich. Editing by Shilpi Majumdar, Adam Jourdan and Mark Potter
Purchase Licensing Rights
Dave GrahamThomson ReutersDave has since 2024 been Reuters’ chief correspondent for Switzerland and Austria, reporting on politics, economics, and other things that make the world go round. Before that he spent 13 years in Mexico City as deputy bureau chief for Mexico and Central America and eight years as a correspondent in Berlin, where he joined Reuters in 2003.
