CAMDEN, N.J. -- On the heels of a major acquisition, Campbell Soup Co. has initiated a strategic reorganization that puts its core business operations, including its portfolios of soup, simple meals, snacks and shelf-stable beverages, all under the leadership of Luca Mignini, Campbell’s president of global biscuits and snacks, as COO.
The move “will better position the company to capitalize on the rapidly changing food-industry landscape, while more closely aligning the business with the company’s three growth strategies,” the Camden, N.J.-based company said. Those strategies are optimizing the value of core business operations; increasing health and well-being food, beverages and snacks; and accelerating distribution and new business models.
“Creating a single organization across Campbell’s core businesses will make us more agile and lead to more effective portfolio management to ensure that resources are invested in the areas with the greatest growth potential,” Mignini said. “My immediate focus is on maintaining momentum in our existing snacks portfolio, integrating Snyder’s-Lance and Pacific Foods and stabilizing the U.S. soup portfolio.”
“The transformative Snyder’s-Lance acquisition served as a catalyst for us to re-examine how to best organize the company for increased emphasis on execution and profitable growth,” said Denise Morrison, Campbell’s president and CEO. “This strategic reorganization—focused on our core, the integration of recent acquisitions, the Campbell fresh turnaround and long-term growth—provides the right structure for us to optimize the value of our businesses today, while creating future-oriented capabilities. It will simplify our operations, improve our execution and enable us to allocate resources with a greater focus on profitable growth.”
Campbell fresh includes Bolthouse Farms refrigerated beverages and salad dressings; Garden Fresh Gourmet salsa, hummus, dips and tortilla chips; the U.S. refrigerated-soup business; and fresh carrots and carrot ingredients.
Mignini joined Campbell in 2013 as president of Campbell International. Previously, he spent more than two years as the CEO of the Findus Italy division of IGLO Group, Europe’s largest frozen-food business. Before that, he worked at S.C. Johnson for more than 20 years.
In addition to continuing to oversee the global biscuits and snacks portfolio, including Arnott’s, Kelsen, the recently created Campbell snacks unit (the combined Pepperidge Farm and Snyder’s-Lance brands) and the simple meals and shelf-stable beverages business in Asia Pacific and Australia, Mignini will now also lead the following businesses and functions:
- Campbell’s meals and beverages, which includes the company’s U.S. soup, simple meals and shelf-stable beverages portfolio, as well as the Plum, Pacific Foods, North America Food Service, Canada and Latin America businesses.
- The company’s U.S. sales organization.
- The global product development group within research and development.
Accelerator unit
Campbell also will create a new “accelerator unit” to continue to expand in faster-growing spaces and invest in high-growth areas. It will consist of the Campbell fresh business, the company’s existing digital and e-commerce unit and a network of cross-functional teams that can be rapidly deployed against key growth priorities. It will include capabilities and functions spanning strategy, innovation, consumer experience and new distribution models.
The company has initiated an external search for a chief acceleration officer.
In other moves, Campbell has named Ana Dominguez president of Campbell fresh, succeeding Ed Carolan, who is leaving the company. Dominguez joined the company in 2014 as president of Campbell Canada from S.C. Johnson.
Campbell has promoted Emily Waldorf to senior vice president of corporate strategy. She will continue to lead enterprise strategy development, planning and measurement. She will also lead strategy for the accelerator unit. Waldorf joined Campbell in 2012 as director of corporate development.
Carlos Barroso, senior vice president of global research and development, will move to a strategic advisory role within the Campbell snacks business. Bethmara Kessler, who was senior vice president of integrated global services, has left the company. Senior vice president and CFO Anthony DiSilvestro will now oversee many of Campbell’s integrated global services, including financial planning and analysis and information technology.
Led by the Campbell’s brand, the Camden, N.J.-based company’s portfolio includes Pepperidge Farm, Bolthouse Farms, Arnott’s, V8, Swanson, Pace, Prego, Plum, Royal Dansk, Kjeldsens, Garden Fresh Gourmet, Pacific Foods, Snyder's of Hanover, Lance, Kettle, Cape Cod, Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps, Pop Secret, Emerald, Late July and others.
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