Word: brabeck
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Jobson recently met over lunch with Brabeck, who is on the road more often than he is in Vevey. Brabeck estimates he meets from 2,000 to 3,000 Nestle staff members every year, about 10% of the work force. He pays particular attention to about 150 up-and-coming managers, trying to get to know them and their spouses...
...then he was back in Switzerland, in charge of marketing. When CEO Helmut Maucher began redefining Nestle's product and branding strategy, he leaned increasingly on Brabeck. He even took to calling Brabeck Suslov, a joking reference to Mikhail Suslov, notorious chief ideologist of the Soviet Communist Party. The new product strategy involved grouping all Nestle products under six global brands, including Nescafe, Nestea and Nestle itself. Once it was launched, Brabeck grew restless and asked to be sent back into the field. Maucher was then in his mid-60s and close to retirement. Brabeck technically reported to the chief...
...understand Brabeck's strategy of cost-efficient global growth, unwrap a Kit Kat. Nestle acquired the chocolate-covered wafer bar in 1988 when it bought Britain's Rowntree. Today it's a $1 billion business, says Patrice Bula, head of the chocolate division at Nestle headquarters, and the company is pushing Kit Kat as its answer to the Mars bar, the world's most popular candy. Last year Nestle started producing Kit Kats in Russia and Bulgaria for Eastern Europe. A Latin American launch is slated this year. Kit Kat is already selling briskly in Japan, Australia and India...
...that in a German Kit Kat. In Japan, strawberry-flavored Kit Kat is all the rage. Each of these product variations is the result of thorough market research on local tastes. "There is no global consumer for the food-and-beverage business. This is a deep belief we have," Brabeck says...
...Rowntree licensed the brand in perpetuity to Hershey. The only way for Nestle to get it back would be a change of heart--or a change of control--at Hershey. So when the Hershey Trust put the company up for sale last year, Nestle saw a ripe opportunity. Brabeck made an agreement with Britain's Cadbury Schweppes under which it would return Kit Kat and another brand, Rolo, to Nestle if Cadbury made the winning bid for Hershey. In the end, the Hershey Trust dropped its sale plans, but Nestle has not given up hope. Brabeck says he's "willing...