Veteran Analyst Mark Purdy on Nestlé

Veteran Analyst Mark Purdy on Nestlé

From Preferred Shares Podcast by Preferred Shares Podcast

March 20, 2026 · 1h 5m

About this episode

Mark Purdy discusses Nestlé's recent challenges and opportunities in the consumer staples sector.

Welcome to Episode 31 of the Preferred Shares Podcast. In this episode, we continue our short series on Nestlé. We brought back our guest Mark Purdy ( whom we interviewed about Lindt & Sprüngli ) to chat about the company’s more recent history and its current set of challenges and opportunities. Mark is a veteran investment analyst with 40 years of experience with a particular focus on consumer brands. He’s now retired from full-time research and portfolio management, and he has set up Calabria Park Advisors, a boutique consultancy. In This Episode * Setting the Stage: Consumer Staples Under Pressure — Mark frames the last six years for the sector, covering the COVID distortion between in-home and out-of-home consumption, and the wave of inflation that followed. * Nestle’s Perfect Storm: Cocoa & Coffee Costs — Commodity prices hit Nestlé especially hard, with cocoa at one point nearly 5x its pre-spike level, squeezing margins. * CEO Carousel: Three Leaders in 18 Months — The show examines the transition from Paul Bulcke to Mark Schneider to Laurent Freixe and now Philippe Navratil, and how leadership instability can create internal distraction even at a resilient company. * The…

People in this episode

Guest: Mark Purdy

Topics covered

  • Nestlé
  • consumer staples
  • investment analysis
  • leadership changes
  • commodity prices
  • brand management

Keywords

  • Nestlé
  • Mark Purdy
  • consumer brands
  • leadership instability
  • commodity prices
  • Cocoa
  • Coffee
  • inflation
  • brand stewardship

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Nestlé, Calabria Park Advisors

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