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EXPLAINER-What's in Nestle's sprawling food empire as new CEO wields axe?
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EXPLAINER-What's in Nestle's sprawling food empire as new CEO wields axe?
Oct 16, 2025 10:17 AM

AMSTERDAM, Oct 16 (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 ( UL ), P&G, Kraft Heinz ( KHC )

, PepsiCo ( PEP ) 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)

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