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Laurent Freixe, the new CEO of Nestlé | Photo credit: Nestlé
Nestlé has appointed long-serving executive Laurent Freixe as its new CEO following the resignation of Mark Schneider after eight years in the role.
Freixe joined the French division of Nestlé in 1986 and managed the company’s European and Americas segments before being appointed CEO Zone Latin America in 2022. He has sat on Nestlé’s Executive Board since 2008 and is credited with playing a key role in ‘strengthening the strategic direction of the company and its portfolio’.
“I have known Laurent for a long time and highly regard him as a talented leader with strategic acumen, extensive in-market experience and expertise as well as a deep understanding of markets and consumers. Laurent is the perfect fit for Nestlé at this time and under his leadership, Nestlé will further strengthen its position as a dependable, reliable company through consistent and sustainable value creation,” said Paul Bulcke, Chairman of Nestlé’s Board of Directors.
On a call with investors, Bulcke said the Board of Directors and Schneider had ‘assessed the current environment and agreed now is the time for change’.
Schneider’s tenure as Nestlé CEO was characterised by broadly strong growth, with a notable focus on growing the company’s share in the global coffee industry. Joining the business in January 2017, Schneider oversaw the completion of Nestlé’s majority acquisition of renowned Californian specialty coffee chain Blue Bottle Coffee in September of the same year – a move which propelled the Swiss food and beverage giant into the specialty coffee market for the first time.
In May 2018, Schneider played a key role in the creation of Nestlé’s Global Coffee Alliance with Starbucks – a $7.1bn deal which granted the Swiss business exclusive rights to market and distribute Starbucks-branded retail packaged coffee, pods and RTD ranges across more than 80 markets outside of Starbucks’ retail stores.
The first products of the partnership hit shelves in February 2019, with Starbucks’ coffee range frequently cited by Nestlé as a key sales contributor. After reaching CHF 3.6bn ($3.9bn) in 2022, Nestlé said sales of Starbucks products grew at a high single-digit rate in 2023 and remained a leading growth channel in the first six months of 2024.
In a press release, Bulcke credited Schneider with providing ‘steady leadership in turbulent times’ including steering the business through the pandemic and more recently severe supply chain disruption and a cost-of-living crisis in many markets globally.
However, with sales yet to return to pre-pandemic levels Nestlé has missed successive earnings targets and the company’s share price has fallen 14% over the last 12 months.
Schneider’s resignation is the latest change of the guard at some of the world’s largest coffee companies in recent months. Nestlé-owned Nespresso named Philipp Navratil as its new CEO in April 2024, while US coffee giant Starbucks will be run by its third CEO in two years when Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol takes the helm on 9 September 2024.
Amsterdam-based coffee and tea group JDE Peet’s has replaced Interim CEO Luc Vandervelde with Chief Financial Officer Scott Gray as it seeks a permanent replacement for Fabien Simon, who left the role in April 2024. Additionally, fellow JAB Holding-backed brand Espresso House – the largest branded coffee chain in the Nordics with some 500 stores – recently announced former McDonald’s and Costa Coffee executive Thomas Kelly as its CEO, effective September 2024.
