LONDON, Oct 17 Reuters Nestle announced it is revamping senior leadership and its operating structure, cut its fullyear sales outlook and reported worsethanexpected ninemonth organic sales growth, after failing to raise volumes amid continued price hikes.

The Swiss company said on Thursday it expects 2024 organic sales growth to be around 2 and an underlying trading operating profit UTOP margin of about 17 for the year.

In July, Nestle had said it expected fullyear organic sales growth of at least 3 and that its UTOP margin for 2024 would grow moderately from the 17.3 it had reported in 2023.

Ninemonth organic sales for 2024, which exclude the impact of currency movements and acquisitions, rose 2, the maker of Maggi stock cubes and Nescafe coffee said.

Analysts had, on average, expected organic sales growth of 2.5.

Consumer demand has weakened in recent months, and we expect the demand environment to remain soft, new CEO Laurent Freixe said. Freixe assumed office at the start of September after his predecessor, Mark Schneider, was ousted following several quarters of weak sales volume growth.

On Thursday, Nestle said Freixe plans to reduce the size of his executive board, merge the company39;s Latin America and North America units, and merge its Greater China and Asia, Oceania and Africa businesses, among other changes.

Nestle39;s ninemonth 1.6 price increases were behind the average analyst estimate of 1.7. Real internal growth or sales volumes rose 0.5 in the…