LARGE food companies have long been among the world’s most solid, with reassuringly consistent returns even in hard times. None would seem steadier than Nestlé, based in the Swiss town of Vevey, on a lake near snowy peaks. For its 150th anniversary in 2016 it opened a new museum filled with corporateheirlooms（傳家寶，祖傳遺物）: the first written notes about a new product called milk chocolate, laid out in blackcursive（草書，手寫體）; an old tin of Nescafé, used by soldiers as a stimulant in the second world war; and an early can of Henri Nestlé’s infant formula, which in 1867 saved the life of a premature baby.

大型食品公司長期以來都屬于世界上最堅實的企業之列，即使在艱難時期也有令人安心的穩定回報。似乎沒有哪家企業比總部位于瑞士雪山湖畔韋威鎮(Vevey)的雀巢公司更穩固了。2016年雀巢成立150周年之際，其新揭幕的博物館展示了眾多“傳家寶”：有關新產品“牛奶巧克力”的首份書面記錄，用黑色草體書寫；一罐陳年的雀巢咖啡，在二戰時士兵們曾用它來提神；還有一罐早期的亨利雀巢嬰兒配方奶粉一一它在1867年挽救了一名早產兒的生命。

It hascome a long way（取得很大進展） since then. It sold goods worth nearly $90bn in 189 countries in 2015. Of the 30,000 cups of coffeesipped（抿，小口喝，中文里說的“品茶”的“品”，也可以用這個動詞） around the world each second, Nestlé estimates, one-fifth are cups of Nescafé. But the industry it presides over is inupheaval（劇變）. On January 1st a new chief executive, Ulf Mark Schneider (pictured), took over. He is the first outsider to get the top job since 1922, and his background—running a health-care firm, not selling chocolate bars or frozen pizza—suggests the main source of worry for the business.

自那以后，雀巢已有長足發展。2015年，該公司在189個國家的銷售額近900億美元。雀巢估計，全球每秒有三萬杯咖啡被人們捧到嘴邊，其中五分之一是雀巢咖啡。但是，其主導的行業正經歷巨變。1月1日，雀巢新首席執行官烏爾夫·馬克·施奈德（Ulf Mark Schneider，見圖）上任。他是自1922年以來首位擔任這一最高職位的外部人士，而他之前管理醫療保健企業（而不是賣巧克力棒或冷凍披薩）的工作背景是導致人們憂慮雀巢前景的主要原因。

More and more consumers aresnubbing（冷落） packaged food’s sugar, salt andunpronounceable（難以正確發音的 ）preservatives（防腐劑）. Meanwhile,swarms of（大群） smaller firms,emboldened（使大膽） by the ease ofpeddling（沿街叫賣） goods online, aretouting（招徠顧客） supposedly healthier options. From 2011 to 2015 big sellers of consumer-packaged goods, mainly food and drink companies, lost three percentage points of market share in America—a lot in the industry’s context—according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group, a consultancy, and IRI, a data provider.

包裝食品中的糖、鹽以及各種名稱拗口的防腐劑正受到越來越多消費者的冷落。同時，大批小公司借助網絡銷售之便，推廣據稱更為健康的食品。據波士頓咨詢公司及數據提供商IRI的一份研究，從2011年到2015年，包裝消費品的銷售大戶（主要為食品及飲料公司）在美國的市場份額損失了三個百分點，這對該行業來說相當可觀。

As super-sized companiesswat（重拍，猛擊，比如She swatted him over the head with a rolled-up magazine. 她用一本卷起來的雜志猛敲他的頭。） at such tiny attackers, another foe is gaining ground. 3G, a Brazilian private-equity firm, likes to buy big, slow-growing food and drinks companies and slash their costs. Targets have included Kraft and Heinz, two giants which 3G helped merge into one group in 2015, as well as several of the world’s biggest brewers. Other food companies arescrambling（倉促行動） to make cuts of their own, lest they become 3G’s next meal. That has prompted a debate over whether such cuts wreck firms’ growth prospects even further, or whether, in fact, theyare best off（最好做某事）wringing out（絞出，扭干） profits and accepting that robust expansion is a thing of the past.

巨頭企業在大力回擊這些小型襲擊者之時，另一個敵人也開始搶占地盤。巴西私募股權公司3G喜歡購入增長緩慢的大型食品及飲料企業，并削減它們的經營成本。其目標包括卡夫及亨氏量大巨頭（2015年，3G促成這兩家企業合并為一個集團），還有幾家全球最大的啤酒公司。其他食品公司正在爭相自行削減成本，以免成為3G的下一個獵物。這引發了一個爭論：這樣的成本削減會不會進一步破壞公司的增長前景，還是說，強勁擴張已經過時，企業最好能接受這一點并擠出利潤。

Nestlé is not immune to such pressures. In recent years it has often missed its goal of 5-6% sales growth. Excluding acquisitions, its numbers have not met investors’ expectations for 11 of the past 17 quarters. In the most recent quarter, the firm registered organic sales growth of 3.2%.

面對這些壓力，雀巢也未能幸免。近年來，該公司經常達不到銷售增長5%至6%的目標。不包括收購，在過去17個季度中，該公司有11個季度的增速沒有達資者預期。最近一個季度，雀巢的有機銷售增長率為3.2%。

Changing consumer tastes explain some of these shortfalls. So does a shifting retail landscape. Managing a giant portfolio of brands, from KitKat and Nespresso to DiGiorno pizza and Purina dog food, has become harder. Mr Schneider will have to master online ways to market and deliver its well-known brands. The firm needs tocoax（哄誘） customers to pay more for premium products as ordinary ones get commoditised, and discounted by firms such as Germany’s Lidl and Aldi.

之所以增長乏力，消費者口味改變是部分因素，零售業大環境的轉變也是原因之一。要管理包含KitKat巧克力、Nespresso咖啡、DiGiorno比薩、普瑞納狗糧在內的龐大品牌組合已變得愈加艱難。施奈德必須掌握線上手段來營銷和傳達公司的知名品牌。在普通產品被德國連鎖超市Lidl及Aldi等公司變成日常商品又折價銷售的情況下，雀巢公司需要勸誘客戶為高端產品支付更高的價格。

The firm can still boast impressive staying power—its global market share across its entire range of products has remained near 20% for the past decade. Fran?ois-Xavier Roger, Nestlé’s chief financial officer, points out that the group’s sales growth in the first nine months of 2016 was among the fastest of the top ten biggest food and drink companies. Yet a detailed examination of its position by Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm, shows that when growth from acquisitions is excluded, it lost share in all but three of its top 20 product categories between 2007 and 2015. Some of its core offerings, such as bottled water andsingle-serve（單杯式） coffee,fared（vi. 經營） the worst.

雀巢仍能以其持久的實力為傲一一過去十年間，其全線產品的全球市場份額一直保持在接近20%。首席財務官弗朗索瓦-澤維爾·羅杰(Francois-Xavier Roger)指出，雀巢集團在2016年前九個月的銷售增長是全球十大食品飲料企業中最快的。但市場研究公司盛博(Sanford C．Bernstein)對該公司的詳細研究表明，除去收購帶來的增長，2007年至2015年間，集團最大的20個產品品類中僅有3類的市場份額未下跌。瓶裝水和單標咖啡等一些核心產品表現最差。雀巢咖啡包產品的勁敵Keurig在美國搶占了份額。

Such results are likely to attract particularcensure（責難） from investors because of Nestlé’s past heavy emphasis on growth and market share which sometimes cameat the expense of（以……為代價）lower profits. In 2015 its operating-profit margin was 15%, better than the 13% at Danone, a French competitor, but far below the 21% at Kraft-Heinz. Shareholders in the firm are waiting to see whether Mr Schneider willshake things up（使振作，shake up其他含義見注釋）. Some want him to sell off businesses that seem most at risk of long-term decline, such as frozen food, as shoppers look for fresherfare（食物，這篇文章之前也出現了一個fare，那個是做不及物動詞，表示經營）.

這種業績很可能會惹來投資者的指責，畢竟雀巢過去強調增長和市場占有率，有時還不惜為此犧牲利潤。2015年，它的營業利潤率為15%，優于其法國對手達能公司的13%，但遠低于卡夫亨氏的21%。雀巢的股東們正在觀望施奈德能否改變現狀。有人希望他賣掉業績最有可能長期下滑的業務，例如冷凍食品，因為消費者如今偏好更新鮮的食品。

shake up

1.搖動；混合；搖勻：

Shake up before drinking.

服用前搖勻[藥瓶說明用語]

2.使感到震動；使震驚(或慌亂)：

What you said has shaken me up!

你剛才說的話令我十分震驚!

3.改組，使重新組合：

I have to shake the Sales Department up.

我得對銷售部進行改組。

4.抖搖(靠墊、枕頭等)使之恢復原形：

She shook up the pillows, and then lay down in bed.

她把枕頭抖搖膨松后，躺在了床上。

5.[口語]把…搖醒；使振作：

What could shake him up?

什么才能使他振作起來呢?

6.[常作 shake it up][口語]趕快,快點：

Shake it up, we'll be late.

快點兒，咱們快晚了。

7.[廢語]責備；申斥：

The student was shaken up by his mother.

那個學生被他母親申斥了一頓。

Food for life?

生命之食？

For now, Nestlé is defiant. “We started 150 years ago having a product that actually—there’s symbolism there—saved the life of a child,” says Paul Bulcke, theoutgoing（即將離職的） chief executive and likely new chairman. He and his colleagues say that investment in health and related innovation will produce strong growth for years to come. Mr Schneider, who used to run Fresenius, a German firm that offers kidney-dialysis products and services, will certainly emphasise that message. Nestlé differentiates itself from 3G, with its keen focus on cuts. Mr Roger says he respects what 3G does, but that “they have a strategy which is very different from ours.”

目前來看，雀巢并不服氣。“我們始創于150年前，當時的一款產品實際上救了一個孩子的命，這是有象征意義的。”即將離任的首席執行官保羅·薄凱(Paul Bulcke)說道。他和同事們表示，投資于健康及相關創新會為公司未來帶來強勁增長。施奈德曾掌管提供腎透析產品及其他醫療服務的大型德國企業費森尤斯(Fresenius)，他肯定會強調這一點。雀巢將自己與專注削減成本的3G區別開來。羅杰表示，他尊重3G的做法，但“他們的戰略和我們的相去甚遠”。

Still, few observers would call Nestlé a health company. Many of its products are perfectly healthy, including bottled water and coffee. Many are not—milk chocolate and ice cream, to name but two. And for now, the purest forms of Nestlé’s focus on health contribute relatively little to its sales. A business unit called Nestlé Health Science, for example, sells nutritional products for medical needs, such as vitamin-packed drinks for the elderly and for cancer patients. It contributes less than 5% of revenue.

然而，少有觀察者會認為雀巢是一家保健公司。它有很多非常健康的產品，包括瓶裝水和咖啡。但也有許多產品并不健康，在此只舉兩例：比如牛奶巧克力和冰激淋。而現在，雀巢最純粹專注健康的業務對銷售額的貢獻相對很少。例如，名為“雀巢健康科學”的業務部門銷售面向醫療需求的營養產品，比如供老年人和癌癥患者飲用的富含維生素飲料，而該部門貢獻的收入還不到5%。

The firm has a research institute devoted to studying food’s role in the management and prevention of disease—for example, better understanding nutrition’s ability to promote brain health. It may deliver growth but probably only in the long term. Nestlé has also invested in young drugs firms, including one that is testing a treatment forulcerative colitis（潰瘍性結腸炎）.

雀巢設有一家研究所．專門研究食物在管理和預防疾病中的作用，例如要更好地了解營養物質如何能夠促進大腦的健康。這也許會帶來增長，但可能要許久才能見效。雀巢也與一些新興制藥公司合作，包括一家正在測試某種潰瘍性結腸炎療法的公司。

More immediately rewarding may be its efforts to make best-selling but unhealthy foods a bit morewholesome（有益健康的）. In November the company said it had createdhollow（空心的） sugar crystals that taste sweet but contain fewer calories than the usual stuff. It will begin to put the new ingredient in its chocolate in 2018.

雀巢還努力將旗下暢銷但不健康的食品改良得相對健康一些，這也許更有可能帶來立竿見影的回報。去年11月，該公司表示已創制出一種空心的糖晶體，味道甜但含卡路里較常規糖晶體低。公司將在2018年采用這一新原料制作巧克力。

It is also proud of changes to the millions of frozen dinners it sells every week in America. Shoppers had been avoiding the frozen-foodaisle（走廊，通道）. Nestlé first tried discounts, and then in 2015 introduced new versions of its Lean Cuisine products,stripping out（去掉）unpalatable（難吃的） ingredients and replacing them with organic ones. At Stouffer’s, another frozen brand, Nestlé decided to target men with easy, protein-packed meals that are more nutritionally valuable. It worked—its frozen-food sales in America grew faster. In November 2015, they were 6% above what they had been a year earlier. But Bernstein’s Andrew Wood points out that the revival of frozen food now lookswobbly（不穩定的） again.

雀巢另一項引以為豪的改變是冷凍快餐（在美國每周賣出數百萬份）。之前，冷凍食品受到消費者冷落。雀巢先是嘗試折價促銷，然后又在2015年推出新版的“瘦身特餐”(Lean Cuisine)系列，以有機食材替換掉之前難吃的成分。對于旗下另一個冷凍食品品牌Stouffer，雀巢決定針對男性消費者推出富含蛋白質、更具營養價值的速食簡餐。這些努力取得了成效一一其冷凍食品的銷售在美國增長加快。2015年11月的銷售額同比增長6%。但盛博的安德魯·伍德(Andrew Wood)指出，冷凍食品的復興如今似乎又變得搖擺不定。

Nor is Nestlé ignoring 3G’s strategy entirely: it is trying to trim expenses. “We are very much in an investment position, not in a cost-cutting exercise,” says Mr Roger, “but that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to be cost-efficient in what we do.” One effort, which includes trimming waste at factories,is credited with（credit相關詞組見注釋） saving about SFr1.5bn ($1.5bn) a year. Last year Nestlé announced organisational changes, such as consolidating procurement, which will save about SFr2bn each year from 2020.

雀巢也沒有完全忽視3G的戰略：公司正努力縮減支出。“我們的戰略是投資，而非削減成本。”羅杰說，“但那不惠昧著我們不想在經營中實現成本效益。”一項包括工廠減少浪費在內的改革一年為公司節省了約15億瑞士法郎(15億美元)。去年，雀巢公布了一系列組織變革，如采購整合，將從2020年起每年為公司節省約20億瑞士法郎。

1、Get the credit for sth. 因某事受到褒揚，比如：

We don't mind who gets the credit so long as we don't get the blame.

只要我們不挨批評，誰受到表揚我們都不在乎。

2、A credit B with sth. A把某事歸功于B，也可以說：sth. is credited to B 某事歸功于B，比如：

The staff are crediting him with having saved Hythe's life.

海斯能得救全體人員都歸功于他。

3、Be credit to sth./sb. 給……增光，比如：

He is one of the greatest players of recent times and is a credit to his profession.

他是近年來最棒的選手之一，是為他的職業增光的人。

4、Give sb. Credit for sth. 相信某人有……，比如：

Bratbakk had more ability than the media gave him credit for.

布拉特巴克有比媒體所宣傳的還要強的能力。

5、To one’s credit 值得贊揚，比如：

She had managed to pull herself together and, to her credit, continued to look upon life as a positive experience.

她努力使自己振作起來，并且值得稱贊的是，她一如既往地積極面對人生。

Whatever else Mr Schneider has on the menu for Nestlé, radical changes may be somewhat limited by the fact that so many of those who built it into what it is now aresticking around（逗留，在附近徘徊。此處意譯為“留在公司內”）. Mr Bulcke is expected to become the firm’s chairman. The outgoing chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, a former Nestlé chief executive, may become honorary chairman. Mr Bulcke, for one, seems sure that the company should maintain its emphasis on the long term. He taps his hand on the table,rattling（使發出嘎嘎聲） some Nespresso cups, as he insists that growth is still the key.

無論施耐德還將為雀巢準備怎樣的菜單，徹底變革也許多少都會受到限制，因為令雀巢發展到如今這模樣的人大多還留在公司內。薄凱預計會成為集團的董事長。即將離任的董事長、雀巢前首席執行官包必達 (Peter Brabeck-Letmathe) 則可能成為名譽董事長。薄凱似乎確信雀巢應保持著力于長遠發展。他手敲著桌子，震得一些Nespresso杯子當當作響，堅稱增長仍是關鍵。