Heineken's returns under van den Brink among worst of departing consumer CEOs

By Paolo Laudani

Jan 12(Reuters) - Heineken HEIN.AS chief executive Dolf van den Brink resigned on Monday after six years of leading the Dutch brewer, the latest of several changes at the top of leading consumer companies over the last 18 months.

A Reuters analysis of companies that have changed their leadership during that period, including Nestle NESN.S and Starbucks SBUX.O, show which ones have performed best under their CEOs' tenure.

In annualized total terms, the Dutch brewer sits in the bottom half having delivered negative returns of 2.1% under van den Brink since June 2020.

The company that delivered the best returns to its shareholders is Walmart WMT.O. Under the leadership of Doug McMillon, at the helm since February 2014, the retailer posted annualized total returns of 16%, calculated from the day before the CEO took up office to Jan. 12, 2025.

Pandora is second on the list. Its annualized total return came to 11% since February 2019 under the leadership of Alexander Lacik.

In September , the firm announced Lacik would retire in March and be succeeded by marketing chief Berta de Pablos-Barbier.

A laggard in this CEO scorecard is German sportswear brand Puma PUMG.DE, which under Arne Freundt saw a negative annualized total return of 36.6%. He was replaced in April by former Adidas ADSGn.DE sales chief Arthur Hoeld.

Looking at total return, French luxury group Kering PRTP.PA takes the crown as it delivered a whopping 520% total return to its shareholders in the past 20 years with Francois-Henri Pinault at the company's top position between March 2005 and September of last year.

Walmart comes second in this metric at 503.5%, while drinks group Diageo DGE.L, Nike NKE.N and KitKat maker Nestle NESN.S were among the worst performers.