By John Revill
ZURICH (Reuters) -Nestle received complaints in May of improper favoritism by ex-CEO Laurent Freixe along with reports he was in a romantic relationship with an employee, a senior company executive said on Wednesday, two days after Freixe was sacked.
Freixe was on Monday fired due to an undisclosed relationship with a subordinate, exactly a year after he took over, plunging the Swiss food giant into turmoil.
Chief Financial Officer Anna Manz told an investor conference that the relationship between Freixe and the employee was examined in an internal investigation overseen by the board, although no evidence was found at that point.
“And it was at that point that Laurent also made a personal statement stating that there had been no such thing,” Manz said, referring to the concerns about Freixe raised by whistleblowers.
Complaints continued to come in, and Freixe’s departure was sealed following a second investigation which found that he had breached the company’s code of conduct.
He was replaced by Nespresso boss Philipp Navratil, who will bring a fresh perspective to the company, Manz said.
Nestle has been struggling since the term of Freixe’s predecessor Mark Schneider, the first outsider to lead Nestle since 1922. Critical analysts accused him of focusing too much on acquisitions and cutting spending in vital areas.
Schneider was axed in August 2024 when the board’s patience snapped over the Vevey-based company’s poor post-pandemic recovery, triggering what has become one of the messiest managerial periods in the 159-year-old firm’s history.
Manz said Navratil’s quick appointment was possible because the Nestle board had already begun succession planning due to the fact that Freixe is 63.
“I think the reason you don’t see us do an external search now is because the board felt that actually they’d done all of the work,” she said.
(Reporting by John RevillEditing by Dave Graham)
