Nestlé has sold its 40% stake in the Herta charcuterie business to Casa Tarradellas, giving full control to the Spanish food company.
The Swiss food giant formed a partnership with Barcelona-based Casa Tarradellas in 2019 when the KitKat maker divested 60% of Herta to the group.
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In a brief statement today (23 December), Nestlé said the joint venture has come to an end. The financial terms for the sales of the remaining stake were not disclosed.
As well as charcuterie marketed in Europe, the venture also included the Herta dough business in France and Belgium.
When the partnership was established in 2019, the Herta charcuterie and dough business had generated sales of €667m ($785.4m today) the previous year.
Nestlé does not, however, break down sales for its joint-venture businesses, with no mention of Herta, Casa Tarradellas or Spanish revenues in the company’s 2024 annual report.
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By GlobalDataNevertheless, the world’s largest food company operates ten factories in Spain spread across the range of its portfolio: prepared foods and cooking aids; confectionery; pet food; milk products and ice cream; health and nutrition; water, and powdered and liquid beverages.
Nestlé CEO Philipp Navratil, who was only assigned to the job in September, revealed in October that he would be reviewing the group’s portfolio.
“We must have a winning portfolio. I’ll be looking at everything in a rational way. Where we aren’t performing, I will act and act with urgency,” Navratil said in his first results presentation since taking the helm.
“I look at assessing business on four key questions: Is this a growth category? Is the returns profile attractive? Are we positioned to win? And are we actually winning?
“Across most of the portfolio, the answer to these questions is yes – although we are not yet winning as much as we need to. But if our assessment concludes that one or the other business does not meet the criteria I described, we will act, whether that means fixing, partnering or selling.”
As Navratil presented Nestlé’s third-quarter results in October, he also announced 16,000 job cuts.
The reductions will be implemented over the next two years – 12,000 white-collar workers across the group, and 4,000 in manufacturing and within the supply chain.
He did pledge to retain a focus on the so-called “six big bets” introduced by his predecessor Laurent Freixe, who departed under a cloud the previous month after just a year at the helm.
Navratil also pointed to market-share losses he planned to address, along with an emphasis on “rigorously prioritising growth opportunities”.
He added: “We will be bolder in investing at scale and driving innovation to deliver accelerated growth and value creation. We are fostering a culture that embraces a performance mindset, that does not accept losing market share, and where winning is rewarded.”
