Written by John Reville and Oliver Hurt
Zurich (Reuters) -Nestle, CEO of Laurent Freixe, launched just one year after the job to hide a romantic relationship with a subordinate, and throw the Swiss food giant in a leadership crisis that increases the share price and slow sales.
Freixe is replaced by President Nespresso Philipp Navratil, 49, a rising star in the world’s largest food company, as he struggles to deal with the impact of American customs tariffs, and dark global economic expectations and investor confidence diminishes after years of performance.
Placing bare tensions on a broader scale, on Tuesday was the Whipsaw day for international consumer companies where Japan’s Suntory separated with its CEO and Kraft Heinz announced the division and activist Eliott Management, called for a transformation in Pepsico.
“The loss of two executives and chairman in the year has historical dimensions of Nestlé,” said Ingo Spac, head of corporate governance and sustainability in Deca, a Nestlée 30 investor.
“The new CEO needs to reform the business model and restore quantities. He needs to do better work to integrate, buy and focus more on emerging markets.”
Freixe, a 63 -year -old French, was dismissed, after a little more than a year after his predecessor Mark Schneider was expelled for his failure in the heart of Nestle.
The company also said in June that Paul Paulk, CEO from 2008 to 2016, will step aspired as president in April 2026 and will be replaced by Pablo Isla, the former CEO of Spanish Fashion Retail stores.
Nestle said late on Monday that Frexi’s dismissal follows an investigation into an unannounced romantic relationship with direct subordinate that violated the rules of Nestlé’s behavior late on Monday.
The shares of the Nescafe Instant Coffee and Kitkat Bars closed 0.7 % in Zurich, which led to early losses when the stock decreased up to 3.6 %.
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The company said that concerns about a possible relationship had been raised for the first time by employees through the company’s internal reports channel, although the initial investigation was not postponed.
A company spokesman said that Freixe initially denied the relationship with the Board of Directors.
Nestle said that when the employees continued, Nestlla ordered the investigation, supervised by Polky and Esla, with the support of Swiss lawyers Bayer Warr.
The report has been completed in recent days, which led to the meeting of the Board of Directors and Freixe rejected Monday.
The company told Reuters that Freixe, who spent 39 years with Nestle, will not receive any exit package after leaving it.
In a short statement, Busik Frexi thanked his service in Nestlé, but he said that the chapter was a “necessary decision.”
https://media.zenfs.com/en/reuters-finance.com/ca57cfce34d6bd0b6f34f90afbd30455
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