Danone has made changes to the way the French group organises its leadership geographically.
The food and drinks major is moving from five operating “geographies” to three to give the company “even greater focus and agility”, CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique said.
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From January, Danone will run its operations through the three regions of EMEA, Asia Pacific and the Americas.
The Activia maker operates through five regions of Europe, Latin America, North America, AMEA (Asia, Middle East, and Africa) and a combined China, north Asia and Oceania business.
In a statement issued today (26 August), the Evian bottled water owner said the reorganisation will improve its “agility and market impact”.
The new structure sees Pablo Perversi, Bruno Chevot, and Henri Bruxelles appointed as presidents of Danone’s operations in EMEA, APAC and the Americas, respectively from the start of the year.
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By GlobalDataAll three will report to Véronique Penchienati-Bosetta, one of two deputy CEOs at Danone. She is responsible for geographies and categories.
Bruxelles will also retain his responsibilities for joint ventures and partners, Danone said.
Christian Stammkoetter, the president of Danone’s AMEA business, will depart from Danone after 19 years to pursue a “new challenge”.
“As part of the next chapter of our Renew Danone strategy, we have decided to further accelerate our transformation, with a more compact and simpler organisation at the top of the company,” de Saint-Affrique said.
The Danone CEO launched his so-called Renew strategy in 2022 to improve the company’s business performance.
Last year, the Alpro maker generated sales of €27.4bn, which represented a like-for-like increase of 4.3%. Recurring underlying EPS grew 2.5% to €3.63.
Free cash flow was €3bn for the 2024 financial year, up €400m from the prior year.
“We want to move to the front foot on acquisitions,” de Saint-Affrique said in February when Danone announced its 2024 results.
Notably, the company has been in a drawn-out process to try and fully acquire Lifeway Foods since last September, when it sought to increase its 23% minority stake.
The US company rejected the offer in November before the Paris-headquartered company upped its price, only to be turned down again.
Earlier this month, Danone signed an NDA with Lifeway Foods to allow it to weigh up whether to make another bid for the US kefir business.
The terms of the NDA “restrict the ability of Danone” to publicly make further acquisition proposals, attempt to remove anyone from Lifeway’s board or participate in any consent solicitation not recommended by the US company.
