Supply Chain & Merchandising

President and CEO Sean Connolly says the transaction provides an entry point into the attractive dried meat snacks category. In related news, Sally Grimes adds President, Hillshire Brands Gourmet Food Group to a long list of responsibilities.

All brands want to achieve the instant recognition of Coca-Cola, Starbucks or Gillette as customers respond instantly to these brands, reliving everything that is special about them.But a brand is more than a recognizable logo or specially designed symbol. Its a mirror of how customers perceive a company, and those perceptions reflect the value customers place on the products or services that company provides.

Accenture designed, built, and implemented a new operating model for Hostess Brands, including a new distribution system and IT systems, across all aspects of the Hostess Brands enterprise, including the sales and marketing, merchandising, manufacturing, finance and order management functions.

Big data combined with current analytical capabilities puts us in control of backhoes relative to the shovels we dug with not long ago. The power we could and should have through these tools is great, but in many cases we fail to grasp the tools that are readily available to us.

The transaction is expected to extend Jardens portfolio of consumer brands in niche, seasonal staple categories, while creating opportunities in cross-selling, broadening the global distribution platform, and deepening Jardens talent bench.

The candidate will succeed CFO Tim McLevish in Q1 2014, and brings a wealth of consumer packaged goods experience, having worked for nearly 20 years at Procter & Gamble.

The supply chain initiatives are expected to deliver $3 billion in gross productivity savings and $1 billion in incremental cash over the next three years.

Unilever announces the launch of a research project with the University of Liverpool to develop the next generation of renewable chemicals from biomass to use in the manufacture of its home and personal care ranges.