Last March, Emmanuel Faber was ousted from the position of CEO following pressure from several shareholders who criticized his strategy and the unsatisfactory results of the Danone group. The French company has now announced the identity of the person who will succeed it in this position. This is Antoine de Saint-Affrique. Focus on the journey of the new CEO of the French group Danone.
Who is Antoine de Saint-Affrique, new CEO of Danone?
Antoine de Saint-Affrique is a graduate of ESSEC Business School. He graduated from business school in 1987 with an MBA. He also graduated from Harvard Business School in 2002. He has worked professionally in several countries, including the United States, Hungary, Norway and Russia. He held strategic positions for 23 years within Danone’s competing group: Unilever. He notably headed the food branch for four years after being vice-president of the Unilever Skin Business subsidiary. Antoine de Saint-Affrique had been at the head of Swiss chocolatier Barry Callebaut for 6 years. However, he left his position in August 2020.
It is also important to point out that Antoine de Saint-Affrique already had the opportunity to work for the Danone group at the end of the 1990s, when Amora was still part of the group. At the time, he served as vice president of marketing.
Last November, when Danone posted poor results due in particular to the health crisis and the elimination of 2,000 jobs, Antoine de Saint-Affrique, for his part, recorded almost stable results. Its main mission will be to put the restructuring plan into action. “Local First” and to get Danone out of its period of recession.
Antoine de Saint-Affrique: the personality of the new CEO of Danone
Antoine de Saint-Affrique has the reputation of being a loyal person who defends his products at all costs and who serves the interests of the Board of Directors at all costs by never disagreeing with them. He has the particularity of reassuring his staff and the key figures of the group.
Danone has thus found a manager with a very strong international footprint and very comprehensive knowledge of the agri-food world. It is also very sensitive to social and eco-responsible issues which constitute two pillars of the group. During an interview with BFM Business in February 2020, he underlines, speaking of his former company: “ Our activity must be able to exist over a very, very long term horizon even if we are listed on the stock exchange. Having trees and rain on the trees, farmers making a living and farmers’ children taking over is very important to us. This is why we fight against deforestation, build schools and clinics. »
Danone, which has become a company with a mission, is perfectly aligned with its ecological and social ambitions. Two years ago, he did not fail to recall: “There is no future for a company that is not a responsible economic actor, both from an environmental and societal point of view.”
The challenges of Antoine de Saint-Affrique
Antoine de Saint-Affrique will face many challenges. The Danone group is certainly recording satisfactory results, notably with a turnover of 23.62 billion and a stable net profit of 2 billion euros. However, its operating margin fell considerably in 2020 (-14%), a level below that of its competitors. To remedy this problem, Emmanuel Faber, former CEO of the group, significantly reduced the marketing budget, something which greatly displeased shareholders.
In addition, the French group has ten times more employees worldwide than Barry Callebaut. This therefore involves numerous social challenges to be met and exposure to multiple pressures from different stakeholders (consumers, shareholders, employees, etc.). Antoine de Saint-Affrique’s primary mission will be to relaunch Danone’s growth while meeting the expectations of the various stakeholders.
But these are not the only challenges for Antoine de Saint-Affrique. He will have to deal with the changing consumption habits of changing customers who are massively rejecting dairy products or processed products, not to mention the health crisis which is shaking up the economic world.
The company’s attractiveness has declined considerably for several years. It is indeed having difficulty attracting new foreign investors, in particular because of internal rules which limit the voting rights of shareholders. The stock market price today is around 57 euros, the level of 6 years ago.
A very atypical reproach made to Antoine de Saint-Affrique
Antoine de Saint-Affrique is criticized for not being a woman. In fact, the company Women Firstwhose mission is to fight to facilitate women’s access to executive positions, mobilized last week to defend another candidate who did not succeed in getting the position. It is about Nathalie Roos, director of the professional products branch at L’Oréal. A post on LinkedIn defending his interests was viewed 500,000 times. Nathalie Roos has very good knowledge of the agri-food world and an excellent operational reputation. However, she was not given the position of CEO of Danone, a decision that outraged the internet.
