“Shaping our future together”

Ricarda, you already know Emmi very well. Nevertheless, I would like to know how you fared in the first few weeks as CEO and what you focused on. (Laughs) Very good. Together with extraordinary people, I have the privilege of achieving something great: we set standards beyond our industry, make the world more enjoyable with great products and innovative brands, and a better place through our honest and effective sustainability work. It’s a great privilege to enjoy coming to work every day. Our common goal should be for everyone at Emmi to enjoy coming to work, not only to create the best dairy moments, but also to move mountains. For me, this is also part of our responsibility as managers.

I consciously take the time to get to know the Emmi Group from a new perspective and, in particular, to delve deeper into the issues with which I have had less contact until now. Over the past few weeks and months, I have been able to talk to customers, suppliers and many employees and understand what is important and where we have opportunities. I thank them for the opportunity.

Before we look ahead, how satisfied are you with the 2022 financial year?

Ultimately, I see it in a positive light. Things did shake us up a bit in 2022, as we reacted late in many places to the enormous increases in input costs – we were not always sufficiently forward-looking, quick and courageous in our responses. Ultimately, however, we joined forces to halt the downward trend and achieved a respectable overall result thanks to a good second half of the year. And we’ve learnt a lot. I am convinced that we are much stronger today. We need this because, in 2023, we want to close the gap that opened up last year.

You take up your role at a time when significant challenges have to be overcome. What will it take to keep us on track?

In an environment that is challenging for everyone and in which many companies are preoccupied with themselves, having the best teams can really clear the way. And we are such a team. By being close to the market and demonstrating quickly and cooperatively every day that ‘the best dairy moments are Emmi moments,’ we can position ourselves even better for future growth.

What are the most important priorities with which you want to drive Emmi forward?

Together, we want to implement our Strategy 2026 while remaining agile – that means being forward-looking, reacting quickly and courageously to changes and seizing the resulting opportunities. Three issues are particularly important to me. The first is market, market, market. This is our playing field and only here can we win. We focus on consumers and customers, inspire with innovations, continually strengthen our portfolio and thereby create better market positions with differentiated concepts and strong brands. Our decentralised business model helps us to keep our finger on the pulse.

The second point?

People and our culture – how we work together –make all the difference. Our culture of togetherness gives us all the opportunity to develop and do our best to help us succeed. Only if everyone contributes their heart and soul will ‘the best dairy moments be Emmi moments, now and in the future’. And last but not least, we need to constantly improve and become more efficient – operational excellence – so that we can invest in the market, in our employees, in working together and in sustainability.

Milk is Emmi’s elixir. What is your relationship to our raw materials?

Our fridge is full of dairy products. We love eating and eating a lot of cheese, and our girls love the new Globi Aktifit and, of course, Pierrot. From a business perspective, I find milk very fascinating. Hardly any other product is so versatile and interpretable: high-quality milk, mostly produced from grassland, is the source of our products, from cheese to yoghurt and innovative milk drinks such as Emmi Caffè Latte to desserts and much more. It is a great sounding board that you can use to implement nutritional trends on the market.

You can feel your enthusiasm, energy and drive. Your work is demanding. How do you relax?

Of course, I spend time with my family; we like to be in the mountains or just spend time together playing. And I pay attention to sleep, what I eat and exercise. In times like these of constant change and fraught with uncertainty, it is important that we not only look at our resilience as a company, but also look after ourselves personally. This is where entrepreneurial resilience starts. Our energy is the energy of our teams and organisations.

Interview Robert Bossart Picture André Scheidegger

Background:

Born in Graubünden in 1979, she is the mother of two girls and lives with her family in central Switzerland. She has been CEO of the Emmi Group since 1 January 2023. Prior to this, the HSG graduate was Chief Financial Officer and a member of Group Management jointly responsible for the strategic and operational development of Emmi. Prior to that, she held management positions at various food, investment and strategy consulting companies, where she supported companies on their path to growth. She works with her mind and heart, with focused action and together with the Emmi teams around the world to ensure the best dairy moments – today and for generations to come.

You can find out more about our Annual Report 2022 on page 15.