VEVEY, SWITZERLAND — Investment, productivity savings and incrementality are central to Laurent Freixe’s priorities as he steps into the role as the new chief executive officer of Nestlé SA.

“To ensure our success, we will embrace the strategic virtuous circle as our compass with a focus on productivity, cost management, allowing strategic investments in our key brands and key innovations,” Freixe said during an Aug. 23 conference call with securities analysts to discuss the change in company leadership. “We will be laser focused on execution, starting with quality, safety, simplicity, speed and agility. This is pivotal to our success going forward.”

The company announced Freixe’s elevation to CEO on Aug. 23. He took replaced Ulf Mark Schneider, who left the company. Freixe was executive vice president and CEO of Latin America. He became CEO on Sept. 1 and is expected to be nominated to Nestlé’s board of directors at the company’s 2025 Annual General Meeting in April.

From a macro perspective, Freixe said his focus will be on organic growth and market share gains to drive organic growth.

“That requires investments in the brands, that requires investments in growth platforms,” he said. “And the objective — my objective is to create space with the management team to allow for those investments. I've always made the case that innovation, for instance, has to be incremental. Incremental innovation requires incremental funding.”

To illustrate his point, Freixe used Nestlé’s Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee-making machines and accessories as an example.

“If we would have taken resources from Nescafe to grow Nescafe Dolce Gusto, for instance, we might have done a good job on Nescafe Dolce Gusto, but we would have done a poor job on Nescafe,” he said. “… We want to work that line going forward to keep supporting Nescafe, one of our best brands, while putting incremental resources behind Nescafe Dolce Gusto.

“To do this … we will need to be very strong on productivity, cost efficiencies to create the space again and generate the funds and the resources to invest incrementally behind the brands and the growth platforms. It's through investment behind the brands, through quality and execution, of course, that we will achieve that.”

Analysts on the call asked Freixe if he has any plans to subtract from or add to Nestlé’s portfolio of brands and businesses.

“… The focus will be on driving the current portfolio, primarily organic growth is of the essence,” he said. “On the portfolio, there might be, of course, adjustment. But again, (the) top priority is absolutely organic growth and M&A is there to complement the strategy to strengthen our portfolio where it can be (but) is not the core of the strategy.”

Reducing the complexity of Nestlé also will be a priority for Freixe.

“…You know the work we have done on SKUs (stock-keeping units), for instance, lately, but we are doing the same type of exercise on the brands and the innovations and the growth platforms,” he said. “(We’re) just trying to clarify where are the big bets, where are the big priorities, and make sure that those we resource with everything we can and we should to make them thrive and win. Not everything is equal in the portfolio. So, we want to make sure that we resource and support the best possible way the core.”