Barry Callebaut announces new investment program

September 11, 2023

Barry Callebaut announces its strategic investment program, ‘BC Next Level’ in a move to unlock the full potential of the Group, it said, and pave the way for the next decade of sustainable growth by moving Barry Callebaut closer to markets and customers.

“Our mission is to be the heart and the engine for the global cocoa and chocolate industry. We have delivered robust growth for nearly 25 years. Due to evolving customer demands for more sustainable and innovative products, now is the time to bring the Group to the next level by strategically investing in its future,” explained Peter Feld, CEO, Barry Callebaut. “We will move decision-making closer to our markets and customers while fostering simplicity and digitisation to advance our well-recognized innovation and sustainability approach to deliver additional value for all our stakeholders.”

“With BC Next Level, Barry Callebaut is set to become even more customer focused, agile, and efficient. The Board is convinced that these actions will secure the long-term success of the company and benefit all stakeholders. The management team can count on our full support for the implementation of the action plan presented today,” added Patrick De Maeseneire, Chairman of Barry Callebaut’s Board of Directors.

The program includes an investment of CHF 500 million in areas relevant to their customers including innovation, service, sustainability and quality powered by digital platforms. BC Next Level will be funded using existing financial resources.

The operating model of the new program will move Barry Callebaut closer to its markets and customers while implementing globally standardised and digitised processes to further increase growth, profitability and efficiency. Barry Callebaut will increase its regional footprint from three to five divisions; Western Europe, Central & Eastern Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa. This also includes creating its new Customer Supply & Development organisation to enhance product delivery and scale innovation faster globally.

The program is expected to deliver savings of around 15%, equalling CHF 250 million a year. Most of the savings will come from reducing the cost-to-serve in operations, optimising manufacturing footprint, streamlining enabling functions, leveraging shared service centres and a focus on end-to-end supply chain.

New global responsibilities are being created by the company with Peter Vanneste, joining 1 November as Chief Financial Officer, Jutta Schuanek, joining on 1 October as Chief People & Diversity Officer and Dr. Clemens Woehrle as Chief Customer Supply & Development Officer on 1 October.

“We are delighted to embark on this journey in this new leadership configuration. With these changes we bring important new skills to Barry Callebaut for moving to our next level while retaining a good balance of passionate and talented people from within Barry Callebaut,” said Patrick De Maeseneire. “We have the right team in place to drive our sustainable growth plans. At the same time, we thank Steve, Masha, and Rogier for their major contributions through the years and their strong commitment to this company and wish them all the best for their future careers. They have been a very important part of our recent history and we greatly appreciate the impact they had on Barry Callebaut.”

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