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Swiss food giant Nestlé said Monday it dismissed its CEO Laurent Freixe after an investigation into an undisclosed relationship with a direct subordinate.

The maker of Nescafé drinks and Purina pet food said in a statement the dismissal was effective immediately. An investigation found the undisclosed romantic relationship with a direct subordinate violated Nestlé’s code of conduct.

Freixe, who had been CEO for a year, will be replaced by Philipp Navratil, a longtime Nestlé executive.

“This was a necessary decision,” said Chairman Paul Bulcke. “Nestlé’s values and governance are strong foundations of our company.”

The company didn’t give any other details about the investigation.

Freixe had been with Nestlé since 1986, holding roles around the world. When Nestlé revamped its geographic structure in January 2022, Freixe became CEO of Zone Latin America. In August 2024, he was tapped to replace then-CEO Mark Schneider in the top role, and started Sept. 1, 2024.

Navratil started his career with Nestlé in 2001 as an internal auditor and served in a variety of roles in Central America. In 2020, he joined Nestlé’s Coffee Strategic Business Unit, and in 2024, he became CEO of Nestlé’s Nespresso division.

It’s the latest in a string of personnel changes for the company. In June, Bulcke, a former CEO who has been chairman of the board since 2017, said he wouldn’t stand for reelection in 2026. And in April, Steve Presley, an executive vice president and CEO of Zone Americas, said he was retiring after almost 30 years of service.

Based in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé has been facing headwinds like other food makers, including rising commodity costs and the negative impact of tariffs. It said in July it offset higher coffee and cocoa-related costs with price increases.

NEW YORK (AP) — Anna Wintour ended weeks of fashion-world speculation Tuesday when she named Chloe Malle her successor as head of editorial content at Vogue — but the most powerful person in the business isn’t going anywhere.

Wintour, 75, remains chief content officer for Condé Nast and global editorial director of American Vogue and the magazine’s 27 other editions. Malle, editor of Vogue.com, may be stepping into Wintour’s low-heeled slingbacks but she’ll report to the original wearer while taking over day-to-day editorial and creative operations at the U.S. edition. And gone is the storied “editor-in-chief” title that Wintour held for nearly 40 years.

Malle, 39, is the daughter of actor Candice Bergen and the late French director Louis Malle. She joined Vogue as social editor in 2011, moved on to contributing editor in 2016 and has held her current position since 2023. She steered all digital content for Vogue. In June, Malle interviewed the then-Lauren Sánchez ahead of her wedding to Jeff Bezos.

“Vogue has already shaped who I am, now I’m excited at the prospect of shaping Vogue,” Malle said in the announcement.

Since late June, when Wintour told staff that she was giving up her title, a handful of names to succeed her were tossed around. Among them were Eva Chen, vice president of fashion partnerships at Meta; Nicole Phelps, global director of Vogue Runway and Vogue Business; and Sara Moonves, editor-in-chief of W magazine.

Other names that floated about soon after the job went up for grabs are Vogue’s fashion news director Mark Holgate, British Vogue’s head of editorial content Chioma Nnadi and Vogue.com’s digital style director Leah Faye Cooper. Malle and Nnadi co-host the Vogue podcast, “The Run-Through with Vogue.”

The news that Malle got the job comes ahead of the latest round of shows at New York Fashion Week, starting next week, and amid the Venice Film Festival, which includes a new documentary about her father. Her appointment is effective immediately. Malle’s mother, funnily enough, once played Vogue editor-in-chief Enid Frick on “Sex and the City” with some very Wintour-like characteristics.

Malle, a Brown graduate and mother of two young kids, has been outspoken about her liberal-leaning politics, just as Wintour has.

“I actually love working with Anna, because I love someone telling me exactly what needs to be done and exactly what she thinks about something,” Malle said in a recent profile by the Independent. “There’s no indecision. There’s no ambiguity.”

Vogue was founded as a society journal 134 years ago. After Condé Nast acquired it in 1909, it became a traditional industry mainstay with models on the cover, static close-up photography done in studios and a focus on high fashion and heavy makeup.

Wintour, a risk-taker who took over the title in 1988, saw the mass appeal in a broader approach. She expanded international editions, elevated fashion’s connections to pop culture and began putting celebrities, athletes, music stars and politicians on the covers. Wintour went for a high-low approach to fashion and favored storytelling in photo shoots done outdoors.

She embraced then-emerging designers, including Marc Jacobs, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, through initiatives like the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. And she transformed the Met Gala from a small, private fundraiser to a global event and fashion’s most important night.

Considered the fashion bible, American Vogue has had several notable editors throughout its history. Preceding Wintour were Diana Vreeland (1963 to 1971) and Grace Mirabella (1971 to 1988), among others.

“Chloe has proven often that she can find the balance between American Vogue’s long, singular history and its future on the front lines of the new,” Wintour said in the statement on Malle’s appointment.

Under Malle’s leadership, direct traffic to Vogue.com doubled, with massive growth across all key metrics, according to the statement on her new job. Site traffic now consistently reaches 14.5 million unique visitors monthly.

The retirement of the editor-in-chief title brings Vogue in line with changes throughout the Condé Nast universe. When Radhika Jones stepped down as Vanity Fair’s editor-in-chief earlier this year, her role was replaced by a “global editorial director,” found in Mark Guiducci. (Guiducci himself was tapped from Vogue, where he served most recently as creative editorial director.) American Vogue joins most every market where Condé Nast operates in the change to a head of editorial content, who reports to a global editorial director.

Though Vogue has editions spanning the world, from Britain and France to China and India, Malle’s focus will be on American Vogue.

As Condé Nast’s chief content officer, Wintour will continue to oversee every brand, including Vogue, Wired, Vanity Fair, GQ, AD, Condé Nast Traveler, Glamour, Bon Appétit, Tatler, World of Interiors, Allure and more, with the exception of The New Yorker, where editor David Remnick retains control.

Wintour herself does have a boss. She reports to Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast.

“In effect, the addition of a new editorial lead for Vogue US will allow Wintour greater time and flexibility to support the other global markets that Condé Nast serves,” said a Vogue statement in June.

“And it goes without saying,” Wintour joked back then, “that I plan to remain Vogue’s tennis and theater editor in perpetuity.” She’s been a regular at this year’s US Open, as in past years.

She’ll remain at the helm of the annual Met Gala, a major fundraiser for the fashion wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And she’ll stay involved in Vogue World, a traveling fashion and cultural event the magazine began in 2022.

Wintour explained the editor-in-chief shift this way:

“Anybody in a creative field knows how essential it is never to stop growing in one’s work. When I became the editor of Vogue, I was eager to prove to all who might listen that there was a new, exciting way to imagine an American fashion magazine,” she told staff.

“Now, I find that my greatest pleasure is helping the next generation of impassioned editors storm the field with their own ideas, supported by a new, exciting view of what a major media company can be,” she said.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is sinking on Tuesday as rising pressure from the bond market pulls U.S. stocks further from their records.

The S&P 500 fell 1.1% and was on track for its worst day in a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 412 points, or 0.9%, as of 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% lower. All three are still relatively close to their recently set all-time highs.

Big Tech companies led the market lower. They’ve been soaring for years on expectations that they’ll continue to dominate the economy, but they also shot so high that critics say their prices became too expensive.

Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the world’s move into artificial-intelligence technology, fell 2.9% and was the single strongest force pulling the S&P 500 downward. Amazon sank 1.7%, and Alphabet dropped 1.5%.

The overall stock market felt pressure from rising yields in the bond market, where the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.27% from 4.23% late Friday. When bonds are paying more in interest, investors are less willing to pay high prices for stocks.

Longer-term bond yields are on the rise around the world, in part because of worries about how difficult it will be for governments to repay their growing mountains of debt.

In the United States, longer-term Treasury yields are feeling added pressure from President Donald Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve for not cutting interest rates sooner. The fear is that a less independent Fed will be less likely to make the unpopular decisions needed to keep inflation under control over the long term, such as keeping short-term rates higher than investors would like.

Tuesday was also the first opportunity for trading after a federal appeals court ruled late Friday that Trump overstepped his legal authority when announcing sweeping tariffs on almost every country on Earth, though it left the tariffs in place for now.

Tariffs have certainly created confusion across the global economy and may have hurt the U.S. job market. But less income from them could also force the U.S. government to borrow more to pay its bills, according to Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

In another signal of increasing worries in financial markets, the price of gold rose to touch another record. The metal has often provided a haven for investors in times of uncertainty.

Treasury yields briefly trimmed their gains after a report on Tuesday said U.S. manufacturing shrank by more last month than economists expected. Many companies told the Institute for Supply Management that tariffs are continuing to make conditions chaotic.

“Too much uncertainty for us and our customers regarding tariffs and the U.S./global economy,” one company in the chemical products industry said, while noting that orders across most product lines have weakened.

The worse-than-expected data on manufacturing could give the Federal Reserve more leeway to cut its main interest rate for the first time this year at its next meeting in a couple of weeks. That’s the widespread expectation among traders, though several economic reports coming this week could change things.

The highlight for the week is coming on Friday, when economists expect a report to show that U.S. employers upped their hiring by a bit last month. Last month’s weaker-than-expected jobs report raised worries about the economy and cranked up expectations for coming cuts to rates by the Fed.

On Wall Street, Constellation Brands tumbled 7.1% after the beer, wine and spirits company warned that it’s seen a slowdown in purchases of its high-end beers, particularly among its Hispanic customers. That pushed it to slash its forecast for profit this fiscal year.

Kraft Heinz fell 7.5% after announcing that it’s splitting into two, a decade after a merger of the brands created one of the biggest food companies on the planet.

One of the companies will include shelf stable meals and include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will include the Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables brands. The official names of the two companies will be released later.

Among the market’s few gainers was PepsiCo, which rose 1.6% after an investment firm said it sent suggestions to the company’s board to reaccelerate its growth and boost financial performance. The investor, Elliott Investment Management, has a history of buying into companies and then pushing for big changes that can lead to better stock performance.

In stock markets abroad, indexes slumped across Europe, with Germany’s DAX losing 2.3%. That followed a more mixed finish in Asia, where indexes rose 0.9% in Seoul but fell 0.5% in Hong Kong.

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AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

NEW YORK (AP) — Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies a decade after a merger of the brands created one of the biggest food manufacturers on the planet.

One of the companies, currently called Global Taste Elevation Co., will include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese, Kraft Heinz said Tuesday. The other, currently called North American Grocery Co., will include slower-selling brands like Maxwell House, Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. The official names of the two companies will be released later.

Kraft Heinz said in May that it was conducting a strategic review of the company, signaling a potential split. It expects the transaction to close in the second half of 2026.

When the company formed in 2015, it wanted to capitalize on its massive scale. But shifting tastes complicated those plans, with households seeking out healthier options.

Kraft Heinz and other food producers have tried to follow those trends. In 2021, Kraft Heinz sold both its Planters nut business and its natural cheese business, vowing to reinvest the money into higher-growth brands like P3 protein snacks. But the company continued to struggle.

Kraft Heinz’s net revenue has fallen every year since 2020, when it saw a pandemic-related bump in sales. In April, Kraft Heinz lowered its full-year sales and earnings guidance, citing weaker customer spending in the U.S. and the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“Kraft Heinz’s brands are iconic and beloved, but the complexity of our current structure makes it challenging to allocate capital effectively, prioritize initiatives and drive scale in our most promising areas,” Executive Chairman Miguel Patricio said in a statement.

The path to the merger of Kraft and Heinz began in 2013, when billionaire investor Warren Buffett teamed up with Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital to buy H.J. Heinz Co. At the time, the $23 billion deal was the most expensive ever in the food industry.

3G was also behind the formation of Restaurant Brands International — a merger of Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes — and Anheuser-Busch InBev. It’s known for strict cost controls and so-called zero-based budgeting, which requires all expenses to be justified each quarter.

The deal was intended to help Heinz, which was founded in 1869 in Pittsburgh, expand sales of its condiments and sauces on grocery store shelves. Heinz’s new owners also set about cutting costs, laying off hundreds of workers within months.

At the same time Kraft, based in Chicago, sought for a partner after a 2011 split from its snack division, which became Mondelez International.

In 2015, Buffett and 3G decided to merge Heinz with Kraft. The merger created the 5th largest food and beverage company in the world, with annual revenue of $28 billion. Buffett and 3G each contributed $5 billion for a special dividend for Kraft shareholders.

At the time, the prevailing attitude was that the bigger the conglomerate, the more companies would save through sharing services like accounting, said Russell Zwanka, an associate professor of food marketing at Western Michigan University.

But even at the time of the merger, many consumers were shifting away from the kinds of highly processed packaged foods that Kraft sells, like Velveeta cheese and Kool-Aid. The push to remove artificial flavors and dyes added further costs.

“The customer has become much more diligent in what they’re buying, and so it’s making it more difficult to allocate your resources properly,” Zwanka said.

Kraft Heinz also had trouble distinguishing its products from cheaper store brands. At Walmart, a 14-ounce bottle of Heinz ketchup costs $2.98; the same size bottle of Walmart’s Great Value brand is 98 cents.

In 2019, Kraft Heinz slashed the value of its Oscar Meyer and Kraft brands by $15.4 billion. Many investors blamed the company’s leadership, saying its zeal for cost-cutting was hurting brand innovation.

Buffett told CNBC Tuesday that he’s disappointed that Kraft Heinz decided to go forwarded with the split, which will cost the company $300 million and take a year to complete. He’s also frustrated that shareholders won’t get a vote on the move.

Berkshire has held onto its massive 27% Kraft Heinz stake, making it the company’s largest shareholder, even as stock price fell roughly 70% since the merger. Buffett has acknowledged in the past that Berkshire overpaid for the investment. Berkshire took a $3.76 billion write-down on the value of its stake in Kraft Heinz in the second quarter of this year.

“It certainly didn’t turn out to be a brilliant idea to put them together, but I don’t think taking them apart will fix it,” Buffett said to CNBC. The Associated Press left messages seeking comment Tuesday with Buffett and 3G.

Zwanka said the split likely won’t impact consumers. He thinks individual brands like Oscar Mayer will be bought by other companies.

“These brands have survived over 100 years and they will continue to survive,” he said. “You just have to find a company willing to invest the resources in either maintaining a mature category until your competitors drop off or growing a growth category like Philly Cream Cream and all the Hines brands.”

Kellogg Co. provided the blueprint when it split into two companies in 2023, Zwanka said. Last year, Mars bought one of the companies, dubbed Kellanova, which owned snack brands like Pringles. Italian confectioner Ferrero announced in July that it planned to buy WK Kellogg, the cereal company.

Other food companies are following in its footsteps. Late last month, Keurig Dr Pepper said it would buy the owner of Peet’s Coffee and then split itself in two, with one company selling coffee and the other selling cold beverages. Keurig and Dr Pepper merged in 2018.

Zwanka said his biggest concern is for Kraft Heinz’s 36,000 employees, who now face more than a year of uncertainty before the split is finalized.

“The brands will survive. You just hope the people will move with the brands,” he said.

Carlos Abrams-Rivera will continue to serve as CEO of Kraft Heinz and will become CEO of North American Grocery Co. once the separation is complete. Kraft Heinz said that its board is working with an executive search firm to identify potential CEO candidates for Global Taste Elevation Co.

Kraft Heinz has no plans to change its current headquarter locations in Chicago and Pittsburgh.

Kraft Heinz shares fell 7% Tuesday.

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Durbin reported from Detroit. AP Business Writer Josh Funk contributed from Omaha.