Nestlé investors have called for Chairman Paul Bulcke's resignation, following the departure of the second CEO in just over a year. The Financial Times, according to which shareholders are concerned about internal management and governance choices.
The spark was the sudden dismissal of Laurent Freixe in early September. The former CEO was ousted for failing to disclose a romantic relationship with a subordinate, a violation of the company's code of conduct. Freixe's dismissal came exactly one year after the departure of his predecessor, Mark Schneider, and just weeks after Bulcke announced his intention to retire in 2026.
“I don't think Bulcke will leave before April, but he should have done so already when Schneider was forced to resign,” he told FT Alexandre Stucki, founder of AS Investment Management, which represents some of the founding family's investors, clarified that the two incidents are unrelated and that Freixe's conduct constituted a serious and unequivocal violation.
Bulcke, 70, a Belgian-born Swiss citizen, has led the board of directors since 2017 and has been with Nestlé since 1979. He served as CEO between 2008 and 2016, before becoming president. In recent months, his shareholder support has weakened. Sales results are a cause for concern: volumes at the food giant, the world's largest producer of packaged foods, declined in 2023, penalized by price increases introduced to offset raw material costs.
In April, Bulcke was re-elected with 84,8% of the vote, well below the 96% he received in 2017. Pressure is now mounting: several funds fear that a delayed exit could exacerbate strategic uncertainty and slow the post-pandemic recovery. Nestlé, contacted by Reuters, declined to comment.
