B&G Foods Reorganizes

B&G Foods is reorganizing to better compete in today’s volatile CPG and retail landscape.  

The Parsippany, NJ-based food company will be comprised of four business units beginning Aug. 1: spices & seasonings, meals, frozen & vegetables, and specialty. To align with the changes, a new leadership structure has been formed, accompanied by a slew of promotions.  

Casey Keller, president and CEO of B&G Foods, said the reorg will establish clear focus and expectations within the company’s portfolio.

[See also: B&G Foods Boosts Manufacturing With Growers Express Acquisition]

“These units will define the categories and brands that we will resource and grow, the platforms for future acquisitions, the brands that will run for efficiency and cash flow, and the businesses we may exit over time,” said Keller in a statement. “The business unit structure will also push accountability and multi-function responsibility down to more closely managed parts of the complex B&G Foods portfolio — improving the speed and clarity of decision-making to deliver growth and financial performance.”

The moves are expected to help B&G Foods manage today’s inflation, pricing, and supply challenges —"which means pricing as quickly as possible to recover higher input costs, and increasing production and critical supply to improve service levels above 95%,” Keller said.

It will also set the company on track to improve organic growth performance beyond COVID-19 recovery to 1-2% growth by capitalizing on such trends as work-from-home and the increase in at-home cooking and baking.

With the changes, B&G will hone in on the brands and categories it expects to be able to win, as well as make accretive acquisitions. Finally, the company expects to also accelerate cost savings and productivity efforts to eliminate non-value-added costs, offset inflation and strengthen margins and cash flows longer term, said Keller.

Leadership Changes

The new division structure and how much they represent the company’s net sales are as follows: spices & seasonings (18%), meals (22%), frozen & Vegetables (27%), and specialty (33%). To support the new org, a host of leadership changes were announced: 

• Erich Fritz, EVP and chief supply chain officer, will retire Oct. 1.
• Jordan Greenberg, currently EVP and chief commercial officer (and a CGT Visionary), will transition to president of spices & seasonings, and remain an EVP of B&G Foods.
• Ellen Schum, currently EVP and chief customer officer, will transition to president of specialty, and remain an EVP of B&G Foods.
• Kristen Thompson, currently director of marketing for Green Giant, has been promoted to president of frozen & vegetables, and has been appointed as an SVP of B&G Foods.
• Gary Benedict, currently VP of revenue growth management, will be promoted to SVP of commercial operations.
• Rick Drummond, currently VP of quality assurance and R&D, will be promoted to SVP of quality assurance and R&D.
• Tessie Gallagher, currently VP of sales, will be promoted to SVP of field sales.
• Marty Schoch, currently VP of procurement, will be promoted to SVP of supply chain.

B&G Foods also said it’s initiated an external search for the president of meals and expects to announce the appointment by the end of August.