“Pressure Is Enormous”: Nestle CEO Faces Mounting Scrutiny Amid Infant Formula Crisis

Nestlé SA CEO Philipp Navratil is feeling the heat after the world’s largest food company recently carried out the biggest recall in its history, pulling infant formula off supermarket shelves after a contaminated ingredient was discovered early last month. Shares have taken a beating, and scrutiny of the recall is intensifying, with prosecutors in Europe opening an investigation.

Navratil and his management team are expected to present a turnaround plan for the Swiss foodmaker on Thursday, following the early January recall of its infant formulas. Multiple production sites were found to have cereulide, a toxin that can cause nausea and vomiting.

French authorities have received complaints from eight consumers who say their children vomited after consuming Nestlé baby formula, prompting Paris prosecutors to open investigations. In the UK, there have also been 36 reports of suspected food poisoning linked to baby formula consumption.

BBC News provided more color to those investigations:

Prosecutors in Paris will seek to establish whether the baby formula producers are liable for distributing a tainted product. It will be co-ordinated with local probes into whether there was a causal link between the contaminated formula and the deaths of three babies in France. Nestlé and France’s health ministry have stressed there was as-yet no evidence to indicate such a link.

In Switzerland, the food giant’s shares are little changed year to date, with uncertainty surrounding the baby formula debacle still hanging over sentiment. Zooming out, the stock has retraced to 2018-19 levels.

Vontobel analyst Jean-Philippe Bertschy told clients, “The pressure is enormous … and full-year results have become almost anecdotal, as investors are now squarely focused on the robustness of quality controls in the infant nutrition case and on the strategic update pledged by the new management team.”

Investors’ attention now shifts to Thursday, when the Swiss giant reports full-year results and is expected to unveil its turnaround plan.

Bloomberg noted, “Thursday’s strategy update may include a reorganization to streamline businesses. Navratil has signaled that he wants to focus on four core divisions — pet care, coffee, nutrition and health, and food and snacking — while centralizing functions such as marketing, an area the company did not invest enough in during years of short-term margin expansion.”

Vontobel’s Bertschy said, “It will be crucial that we receive an update on some of the under-performing units, how they want to reduce the net debt level and how they plan to accelerate the free cash flow. The market will look for a precise roadmap rather than another broad reassurance – a plan that is clearly underpinned by concrete actions, milestones and measurable commitments.”