Social plan at Danone: "the very survival of the company" in question, according to the CEO - France 24

Paris (AFP)

"It is the very survival of the company which is in question": the CEO of Danone Emmanuel Faber said Tuesday to "completely" assume the plan to cut positions announced the day before by the group.

The profitability of the group is "the base of the investments of tomorrow (...) If we are very permanently out of step in competitiveness compared to competitors, one day or another, and this is what happens, they are capable of to do much better than us, and therefore it is the very survival of the company which is in question "declared Mr. Faber on France Inter.

"Our shareholders are obviously in a difficult situation with a price (of the Danone share, editor's note) which has fallen by 30% for about a year" he detailed the day after the announcement by the agri-food group French a plan to cut administrative jobs of up to 2,000 positions.

"The reality is that the protection of profitability and profits for any company, is fundamental" explained the one who, in a personal capacity, gave up his retirement-hat and often pleaded for more social justice in the company to support a strong environmental transition.

"I fully assume the decision we are taking," he said.

"I said that we had a duty to utopia as a leader, but we have an absolute duty to pragmatism, and it is the balance between the two that must be found".

Taking advantage of the “trust” of the group's board of directors, he said he was not afraid of losing his job: “I'm afraid of doing it badly”.

Admitting that Danone "has always been operable" (at risk of being targeted by a takeover bid), "has been said for years and years", Mr. Faber argued that "performance" is not was "not there".

Its competitor, the Swiss food giant Nestlé, raised its growth target for 2020 at the end of October, reaping the first fruits of the reorganization of its product portfolio.

The reorganization announced by Danone, which employs some 100,000 people worldwide, is intended to simplify and lighten the decision-making circuits of a company which has suffered from the health crisis.

© 2020 AFP