Fabien Simon, the CEO of leading coffee company JDE Peet’s, will depart from the company next month.
The Jacobs coffee maker announced that Simon, who assumed the role of CEO in 2020, will be departing on April 1st.
No explanations were provided for the leadership transition. Simon started at Jacobs Douwe Egberts as CFO in 2014 and was promoted to CEO six years later.
“On behalf of the board, I want to thank Fabien for leading JDE Peet’s, particularly through a period of macro disruption,” said JDE Peet’s chairman Olivier Goudet said.
“While navigating Covid and high inflation in a more complicated world, Fabien transformed the company into a global coffee and tea powerhouse with brands, talent and sustainability at its core.”
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Luc Vandevelde, the ex-chairman and CEO of Marks and Spencer, currently serves as the lead independent director at JDE Peet’s. He will assume the interim leadership role while the company searches for a permanent replacement for Simon.
Vandevelde formerly held a position as an executive at Jacobs Coffee during the 1990s. Following the acquisition of Jacobs Suchard by Kraft Foods at the time, he assumed the role of CEO for the French and Italian operations of what was then known as Kraft Jacobs Suchard.
“Luc is a seasoned executive who knows JDE Peet’s and the coffee category intimately, and we are confident in his ability to unlock shareholder value while leading the search for a permanent CEO,” Joachim Creus, the CEO of JAB, the indirect majority shareholder of the company, said.
“JAB has strong conviction in the long-term growth prospects of JDE Peet’s and the resilience of the sector and we are fully committed to our investment in the world’s leading pure-play coffee and tea company.”
Vandevelde is slated to take over as the chairman of JDE Peet’s following its Annual General Meeting in May.
In 2023, the owner of the Tassimo brand achieved sales of €8.19 billion ($8.96 billion), marking a 0.5% increase on a reported basis and a 3.9% increase organically.
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In 2023, JDE Peet’s reported an adjusted EBIT of €1.13 billion, showing a decrease of 8.1% on a reported basis, yet demonstrating a 1.1% increase organically.
The company’s “underlying profit” declined by 21.6% to €734 million.
When discussing the group’s overall outlook for 2024 with analysts last month, Simon said, “We expect our organic sales growth to come in at the lower end of our medium-term target of 3% to 5%, with a mid-single-digit organic growth in adjusted EBIT, when excluding Russia’s performance.