Barry Callebaut CEO Exit Followed Boardroom Clash Over Cocoa Strategy
Barry Callebaut’s former chief executive, Peter Feld, stepped down last month following a high-level disagreement within the company over the future of its cocoa operations, according to people familiar with the matter. The dispute, first reported by Reuters, centered on a proposal to separate the group’s cocoa processing business from its higher-margin chocolate activities.
Sources cited by Reuters said the proposal triggered a strategic split at board level, including opposition from long-standing board member Christian Patrick de Maeseneire. Cocoa currently represents roughly 31% of Barry Callebaut’s revenue and around 15.5% of operating profit, making the business strategically sensitive despite its lower margins.
Barry Callebaut had been exploring options to carve out the cocoa unit or potentially sell a minority stake, a move aimed at reducing exposure to volatile cocoa prices. However, the idea ultimately failed to gain full board support, and insiders told Reuters that this reversal weakened Feld’s position and accelerated his departure.
Neither Feld nor de Maeseneire commented on the matter. Barry Callebaut declined to discuss internal disagreements, reiterating instead its commitment to a “fully integrated cocoa and chocolate business model.”
Strategic Tensions Behind the Exit
According to people familiar with internal discussions, the board was initially open to a separation of the cocoa unit but later withdrew support. This left Feld increasingly isolated as disagreements widened beyond the cocoa issue, extending to investment priorities such as digitalisation and capital allocation.
Barry Callebaut processes close to 1 million metric tonnes of cocoa annually, equivalent to roughly 20% of global cocoa supply. While this scale gives the company unmatched market reach, it also exposes it more heavily than peers to extreme price swings—particularly during the historic cocoa rally seen in 2024.
Separating the cocoa business could have insulated the group from commodity volatility, freed up capital, and sharpened focus on higher-margin chocolate products, Reuters previously reported. But critics within the company argued that doing so would undermine Barry Callebaut’s core competitive advantage: vertical integration.
Leadership Transition and Market Backdrop
The board has appointed Peter Schumacher, formerly CEO of Vetter Pharma, as Feld’s successor. In an internal memo reviewed by Reuters, Barry Callebaut told employees the leadership change came at a moment when its transformation programme was nearing completion and the company was entering what it described as a “new phase of growth.”
External stakeholders appear broadly supportive of the integrated model. Artisan Partners, which owns about 10% of Barry Callebaut, publicly welcomed Schumacher’s appointment and reiterated that cocoa processing remains central to the company’s vertical integration strategy.
The leadership shake-up comes amid a difficult operating environment. Cocoa demand weakened in late 2024 as high prices forced chocolate makers to shrink product sizes and reformulate recipes. At the same time, extreme price volatility has placed additional strain on processors with large physical exposure.
Despite internal divisions, sources told Reuters that senior management broadly agrees on the need for strategic change—though not on how far that change should go.
