New Nestlé CEO Philippe Navratil has announced plans to cut 16,000 jobs over two years. This is the company’s first financial report since the dismissal of previous CEO Laurent Frakes, who was removed for an affair with a subordinate. This is reported by Financial Times.
The cuts, which will amount to about 6% of Nestlé’s total workforce, were announced by Philippe Navratil on October 16, presenting a plan to grow sales, save costs and focus on the company’s most effective divisions.
“The world is changing, and Nestlé needs to change faster. This will include making difficult but necessary decisions to reduce staff over the next two years, Navratil said.
He said the cuts would affect 12,000 “white-collar” positions and another 4,000 in manufacturing and supply chains.
Navratil, who became Nestlé’s third CEO in less than a year and a half, said he would accelerate the cost-saving program initiated by his predecessor and increase its target to $3.7 billion by 2027 (previously planned to be 2.5 billion Swiss francs). This should free up additional resources for development. Nestlé has been facing a slowdown in sales growth for the second year in a row: consumers, tired of high prices, are cutting costs and choosing cheaper products from their own brands.
As a reminder, on September 2, Nestlé CEO Laurent Frakes was fired due to a romantic relationship with a subordinate. The company thanked him for his work, emphasizing that this decision was necessary to preserve its reputation.
Frakes held the position for exactly a year. A company representative told Reuters that suspicions of a possible relationship arose in the spring of 2025, after which the board of directors began an investigation. At first, it did not yield conclusive results, but due to remaining doubts, a second investigation was launched with the participation of an external firm, which confirmed the fact of the relationship. According to the representative, Frakes initially denied the existence of this relationship to the board of directors.
