Nestle’s Chief Executive Officer i.e. CEO Mark Schneider will no longer hold his position. Laurent Freix has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the company in his place. Nestle is the world’s largest food manufacturing company, which has undergone a major change. Nestle is struggling with an economic crisis these days.
Nestle said Mark Schneider has decided to step down from his roles as CEO and member of the board of directors after leading the company for eight years. Nestle has struggled recently, last month cutting its full-year sales forecast and saying it has had to slow its price increases as cash-strapped customers become more price conscious.
Laurent Freix will take over as CEO at Nestle. Shares of the maker of KitKat chocolate bars and Nestle instant coffee are down 8% in 2024, less than rivals such as Unilever ULVR.L which has gained 29%. Freix joined Nestle in 1986 and has been on the Swiss company’s executive board for 16 years. In his most recent role, he was CEO of Zone Americas. “An experienced person who knows Nestle inside and out, as well as the markets, is taking over,” said Jean-Philippe Bertschy, an analyst at bank Vontobel.
The company has also given information about when the new decision will come into effect. Nestle said that this change is effective from September 1. The change in Freix is ​​a return to Nestle’s usual practice of promoting chief executive officers from within the company. Schneider, the former boss of German healthcare company Fresenius, made the first external appointment to Nestle’s top post in almost a century after taking charge in 2016.
