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 Nestle 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,” he 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 pending elevation to CEO on Aug. 23. He will take over from Ulf Mark Schneider, who is leaving the company. Freixe is currently executive vice president and CEO of Latin America. He is scheduled to become CEO on Sept. 1 and expected to be nominated to Nestle’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 Nestle’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 Nestle’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 Nestle also will be a priority for Freixe.