Navratil is rewriting Nestle's operating model.

After years of drift.

The strategic landscape of the global consumer packaged goods industry underwent a significant shift on 4 February 2026, as Nestlé SA detailed a comprehensive overhaul of its organisational and operational structure. Under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Philipp Navratil, the world’s largest food and beverage conglomerate has embarked on an aggressive transformation designed to dismantle decades of regional fragmentation in favour of a centralised, category-led management model. This transition represents a decisive pivot intended to restore investor confidence, ignite volume-driven growth, and modernise a corporate culture that had become synonymous with bureaucratic inertia.

The necessity of this overhaul is underscored by a tumultuous period characterised by leadership churn, stagnant organic sales, and a substantial increase in corporate debt, which reached approximately CHF60 billion by mid-2025. Central to the new strategy is consolidating the company’s sprawling portfolio into four primary pillars—Coffee, Petcare, Nutrition and Health, and Food and Snacking—and eliminating 16,000 roles globally to fund a massive increase in brand investment. This transformation signals a fundamental shift toward a marketing-first institutional mindset.