Dive Brief:
- Nestlé has selected JLL to lead its global real estate services, including integrated leasing transaction management and strategic advisory services for the food and beverage company’s global portfolio of office, industrial and retail properties.
- The agreement builds on lease administration services that JLL provides for Nestlé. Through an integrated account structure, JLL will also provide AI-assisted portfolio-level real estate decision-making capabilities through its Azara and Horizon platforms, allowing business leaders to interact with enhanced commercial and facilities management data, JLL said Tuesday. Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company, operating in almost 190 countries and generating roughly $100 billion in revenue in 2025.
- Companies are increasingly shifting from fixed, long-term real estate commitments to “elastic portfolios” that leverage data to transform real estate from a line item to a platform for competitive advantage, JLL says. "Clients are looking for tangible value from their real estate, whether through cost optimisation, enhanced flexibility or supply chain resilience,” said Andy Poppink, CEO of leasing advisory for JLL’s European and Asian operations.
Dive Insight:
Most companies are anticipating headcount growth and pushing for full-time employment, but they are still uncertain as to how AI will shape the size and scope of their organizations moving forward, according to JLL’s Future of Work survey.
Commercial real estate teams, in the meantime, are being asked to optimize costs and deliver measurable impacts on employee productivity and organizational resilience, highlighting “a significant shift toward stronger business enablement, further evolving CRE’s role from cost manager to strategic value creator,” JLL says.
More than in the past, the company is seeing demand from clients that want real estate services integrated into one package, JLL CFO Kelly Howe said on the firm's Q2 earnings call.
In its reports, JLL defines elastic portfolios as those that leverage data to turn real estate into a value creator by optimizing space, managing costs and increasing revenue. The company says organizations that can reconfigure their portfolios “at speed” through elastic commercial real estate portfolios can help workforces respond faster to market shifts and test new work models without long lead times typical in real estate.
"Forward-thinking companies are no longer viewing real estate as a fixed cost, but as a dynamic driver of business value,” said Asprey Price, CEO of work dynamics for JLL’s European operations and global head of portfolio services.
High-quality, integrated data is key to this strategy that can help to transform corporate real estate from a line item into a platform for competitive advantage and business resilience, according to JLL.
To provide this type of data, the commercial real estate firm will provide Nestlé with AI-powered analytics and data visualization tools to support decision-making across its global footprint, according to the release. For example, JLL Azara will help business leaders interact with facilities management and CRE data, while its Horizon platform will help them identify investment opportunities and deploy capital with greater confidence, per the release.
A global account team led by JLL’s Iain Franklin and Louise Humpish of its Work Dynamics segment will support Nestlé moving forward, with Jim Panczykowski continuing his role as a relationship executive, “ensuring unified coordination across regions and service lines,” JLL said.
