Nestlé unveils corporate revamp, sees slowdown in YTD growth | Progresiv
Nestlé has announced a change to its corporate structure related to its Waters division, accompanied by changes to its executive team. The move came even as it reported a slight slowdown in sales growth for the first nine months of its current fiscal year. 
The world’s largest food company said its Board of Directors has decided to integrate the Nestlé Waters business into its existing three geographical Zones, effective 1 January 2020. Nestlé Waters, which was created in 1992 following the acquisition of Source Perrier, owns nearly 50 brands, including S.Pellegrino, Perrier, Poland Spring and Nestlé Pure Life.
The move will result in the creation of a dedicated Strategic Business Unit (SBU), which will report to Patrice Bula, Head of Strategic Business Units, Marketing & Sales. Nestlé said the Waters SBU will “ensure strategic alignment globally and manage core global functions”, adding that it will make better use of the group’s local expertise in responding to rapidly changing consumer preferences. It also expects the creation of the unit to speed up profit growth and create synergies.
As part of the changes, the group has announced the departure of Maurizio Patarnello, Head of Nestlé Waters, effective 31 December 2019. He will continue to advise Nestlé Waters during the transition to the new organisational structure.
Meanwhile, the group has named Sanjay Bahadur, currently Head of Acquisitions and Business Development, as the head of the newly-created Group Strategy and Business Development function. The position will be responsible for helping the group identify “internal and external strategic growth opportunities, … manage external partnerships and licensing agreements for the Nestlé Group and oversee the company’s corporate venture capital activities”.
The announcements came even as Nestlé reported that sales for the nine months rose by 2.9% to 68.4bn Swiss francs, with organic sales up 3.7%. The results were driven by a 9.5% jump in sales across the Americas (+4.1% organic), which was supported by a 0.9% uptick in the AOA region (+3.1% organic). This helped offset a 0.6% decline in the EMENA region (+2.9% organic) and a 0.5% decline at its Waters business (+0.5% organic).
Nestlé reported growth in all product categories, with the Purina and coffee brands registering the strongest improvement. It also recorded strong demand for the new Starbucks-branded products.
CEO Mark Schneider said the group was “pleased with our nine-month results”, adding that it continues to see “good momentum in our largest market, the United States and very strong growth for Purina PetCare globally.” (www.kamcity.com)
