By Aimee Look

Nestle said it plans to reduce its workforce by 16,000, or around 6%, over the next two years after lifting its cost-savings target in its first earnings update since new Chief Executive Officer Philipp Navratil took the helm.

The company behind Nescafe coffee, KitKat chocolate bars and Purina pet food lifted its cost-savings target to 3.0 billion Swiss francs ($3.77 billion) by 2027, up from its previous target of 2.5 billion francs.

The world's largest packaged-food group said Thursday that it plans to cut about 12,000 white-collar roles across functions and regions, with an additional headcount reduction of 4,000 in manufacturing and supply chain. The company employs around 277,000 people globally, according to its website.

The headcount reductions have already begun, and will accelerate over the next two years, Navratil said in a call with reporters.

"The world is changing, and Nestle needs to change faster," Navratil said.

Nestle's new boss, who took the top role last month after the dismissal of predecessor of Laurent Freixe, signaled that driving volume-led growth will now be the company's No. 1 priority, and that it is stepping up investments to support that goal.

Organic sales growth for the third quarter picked up to 4.3%, accelerating from the rate of 2.9% the Swiss food giant reported for the first half of the year.

The company said its sales performance reflected a recovery in sales volumes and steady pricing. Real internal growth, the company's key measure of sales volume, rebounded last quarter to rise 1.5% following a 0.4% decline in the second quarter.

Sales for the first nine months of 2025 came to 65.87 billion francs, with organic growth at 3.3%, Nestle said. Analysts had forecast organic growth of 3.2% and 65.765 billion francs in sales for the period, according to consensus compiled by the company.

Nestle reiterated its full-year guidance. It still expects organic sales growth to improve compared with 2024, when it reported a 2.2% rise, and underlying trading operating profit margin--the group's preferred profitability metric--to be at or above 16%.

Write to Aimee Look at aimee.look@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 16, 2025 02:12 ET (06:12 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.