Nestle Boss says his predecessor is “the weakest of the company’s fabric”

The CEO of Nestlé Laurent Frex said that his predecessor invasions in new products categories included health supplements “the weakest of the organization’s fabric”, as he excluded the shift to major acquisitions or asset sales to enhance growth.

Frex, a tall company that replaced Mark Schneider last August, said in an interview with the Financial Times that the diversification during the Shaneider era had led to the neglect of the basic business lines in Nestlé – coffee, small care and food.

“If you are. … focus on developing new spaces … will weaken the nucleus. I think this is part of the issues you face Nestle,” Frex said.

In 2017, Schneider became the second strange person to take over the higher position in the history of Nestle near 160 years. The former CEO of Health Care has continued to perform a series of acquisitions, including food allergies and fitness supplements, to try to balance the Nestlé wallet towards high -sideline health categories.

Schneider has been replaced by Freixe – an old warrior in Nestle nearly 40 years ago – after slowing down during the last part of his term. People familiar with the company said that Schneider’s explicit style has clashed with the culture of consensual companies that fade the group behind Kitkat and Nescafé.

Now freexe in the upper function, it re -concentrates Nestle on its basic brands and trying to restore the culture that is lost. The French, who worked for Nestle in Hungary, Spain and Latin America, returned to the vast Nestle headquarters in Vevey, overlooking the Geneva Lake.

While Freixe says that he and Schneider “understood each other well”, the main difference between them was that he had “intimate” knowledge of the internal work of the Nestlé machine. “Because of that, perhaps my style, I am very close to people, so it is a great advantage,” he said.

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Some consumer commodity companies predict that the US tariff will lead to another increase in prices after increasing inflation after birth. However, Freixe believes that there are other more powerful dynamics in playing.

He said: “The demand is relatively weak, and the supply and competition are very much. This is usually more contrasting than inflation,” adding that these forces will outperform the pressure of the rising prices from the tariff and climate change, which leads to the disruption of the coffee and cocoa harvest.

Nestle and her competitors have reported a slowdown in size, as mortgaged consumers turn into cheaper alternatives. Last year, Nestle’s organic growth fell to 2.2 percent from 7.2 percent in the previous year. The Swiss company has informed a 2.9 percent decrease in net profit to $ 10.9 billion Singapore.

All of them have decreased from Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser and Danone – where they sold poor performance brands and converted to higher margin categories to try to revive growth. However, Freixe said it focuses on stimulating Nestle’s basic works.

“There are always people … (see) the (administration) wallet as a quick solution,” he said. “I think we should never forget that integration and purchases are not the strategy.”

The CEO of Nestle is also affected by the prevailing logic that will make the company more dynamic. Freixe said that he did not “see the advantages” of Nestle smaller, as long as he could benefit from his scale and “bring speed”.

However, some analysts asked why Nestle’s adherence to her frozen food works. The sales of the frozen and refrigerated food group – which includes the Digurano pizza and hot snacks – decreased by 15.5 percent last year to SFR4.3 billion, partially driven by the end of the frozen meal work in Nestlé in Canada.

Although sales of packed foods have been slowing down for nearly a decade, and healthy eating returns to height, Freixe insists that there is nothing “mainly wrong” with this category.

“There is a frequency of consumption … and we are leaders. This is important,” he said. However, Freixe acknowledged that he had lost “the link and competitiveness”, adding that Nestle was trying to reduce prices.

The President of Nestlé has diluted that he would be open to selling brands sitting in non -attractive categories, as Nestlé is “in a position that enables it to win.”

This includes spinning from the annoying actions in Nestle. A report issued by the French Senate Committee found this week that the government had covered the use of Nestle for illegal liquidation treatments for products called “natural mineral water”.

Nestle said that the committee’s conclusions showed the need for clearer and more consistent regulations and that all natural mineral water products were safe to drink. Freixe said that the company was finding an investor to form a joint venture agreement for the water company.

Last November, Freixe reduced the medium -term margin guidance in Nestlé to at least 17 percent, from the range of 17.5 percent to 18.5 per cent specified by the Schneider, and launched a $ 2.8 billion costs.

He said it was a time when we need realism “instead of” dreams “, referring to the request of defeated consumers and the rapid tariff system of US President Donald Trump.

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While Freixe admits that the demand is weak, it insists that the increasing popularity of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs-including OzemPIC and Wegovy- is not a cause.

A recent study of the University of Cornell found that consumers who use GLP-1 drugs reduced the groceries by about 6 percent on average. Freixe said that Nestle has not tested a decrease in sales against the background of the increasing use of drugs and that its wallet – which tends to coffee and pet food – means that the company was in a good position of any future effects.

He added that the early sales of the new products that were specially formulated for GLP-1 users-such as the Nestle collection of ready-made protein meals-were promising.

Meanwhile, Trump’s appointment to Robert Kennedy as US Secretary of Health is another possible problem for Freixe. Kennedy adopts policies aimed at reducing the consumption of highly processed treated foods and reducing sugar intake of Americans.

It can have significant effects on Nestle sweets and intended meal companies, which make up 15 percent of global sales.

However, Freixe said that Nestle “is largely aligned” with Kennedy’s mission. “Food quality, nutritional density, and regenerative cultivation, this is our agenda.”