By Alexander Marrow
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Nestle’s new CEO Philipp Navratil has started with a bang, announcing 16,000 job cuts and a portfolio review that could see brands sold or partnered off as the world’s largest packaged food company looks to focus on fast-growing areas.
Nestle’s shares leapt 9.3% on Thursday, the biggest daily rise since 2007, as investors welcomed the plans after a period of management turmoil for the KitKat-to-Nescafe maker that saw both the CEO and chairman depart in a month.
CEO Laurent Freixe was fired over an office relationship, with Chairman Paul Bulcke stepping down shortly after to make way for former Inditex chief Pablo Isla.
STRUGGLING UNITS: TO FIX, PARTNER, OR SELL?
Navratil is looking to sharpen the company’s focus that could put parts of an empire that spans vitamins, pet food, coffee, confectionery, bottled water and more on the chopping block.
“I will consistently review every part of our portfolio with an open mind,” Navratil said alongside third-quarter results, adding this meant looking at whether brands are growing, the returns are attractive and if Nestle is the market leader.
“If our assessment concludes that one or … (another) business does not meet the criteria I described, we will act, whether that means fixing, partnering or selling.”
NESTLE: A $245 BILLION MARKET CAP FOOD GIANT
Nestle, with a market value of about $245 billion, competes with the likes of Unilever, P&G, Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo and Danone.
Coffee brands Nescafe and Nespresso form a key part of Nestle’s top business unit, Powdered & Liquid Beverages, which accounted for 18.4 billion Swiss francs ($23.1 billion), or almost 28%, of sales for January-September.
PetCare, with brands such as Felix and Purina, had 13.6 billion francs of sales in that period and led on real internal growth, a measure of sales volume that Nestle uses.
NESTLE REVIEWING CERTAIN UNITS, BRANDS FOR POTENTIAL SALE
Nutrition & Health Science includes Nestle’s Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements (VMS) division. In VMS, premium brands grew strongly in the nine months, but a weaker performance across some mainstream brands offset that.
Nestle is reviewing low-growth, low-margin VMS brands like Nature’s Bounty, Puritan’s Pride and Osteo Bi-Flex that together generate around 1 billion francs in annual sales.
It is also reassessing its Water business, which includes Sanpellegrino and Vittel, accounting for under 4% of total sales.
KitKat is Nestle’s stand-out Confectionery performer and in Prepared Dishes and Cooking Aids, it’s Maggi seasoning.
($1 = 0.7957 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow in Amsterdam. Editing by Adam Jourdan and Mark Potter)
