08 Nov 2020 Refocusing the world’s largest food company on cleaner living
Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider methodically puts health at the forefront of his consumption, and is doing the same for the giant food group he heads.
For instance, Schneider skips his afternoon Nespresso as genetic tests revealed his body processes caffeine only slowly, depriving him of sleep. He likes to start his mornings with a smoothie blitzed together from 10 ingredients after colleagues convinced him of the cocktail’s benefits to the immune system.
The German-born Schneider has taken the same studied approach to refocusing the world’s largest food company on cleaner living. Since joining Nestlé in 2017, he has shifted the portfolio away from sugary snacks including Butterfinger chocolate bars and Haagen-Dazs ice cream, while giving convenience meals such as Stouffer’s a vegan makeover.
“There is a renewed interest in health and nutrition,” Schneider said in an interview. “I think this is here to stay, certainly throughout the later stages of this pandemic, and we believe also beyond that.”
Schneider cannot claim to have invented the company’s healthy push. It’s a concept the company has pursued for the better part of two decades under the stewardship of his two predecessors. And some rivals such as Unilever and Mondelez International, are also remodelling their portfolios around healthier options.
But Schneider has accelerated the transformation with the deepest overhaul in 30 years, harnessing developments from investor pressure for faster growth to changing consumer tastes to the Covid-19 pandemic that have changed the trajectory of the food industry.
It’s a shift that’s moved the Swiss company ever further away from the business that long defined Nestle: snacks and convenience foods that are fun and easy eat but not necessarily healthy.
“Nestle will have to perform a tightrope walk in the food segment as it balances appealing to both the health-conscious premium and the mass-market audience,” said Christian Zogg, head of equity and fixed income at LLB Asset Management in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, which holds Nestle shares…..
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