NORTHFIELD, Ill. -- Mike Roos, vice president of convenience sales, has announcedthat in 2008, In 2008, the Kraft Foods Inc. Convenience Store Team will undergo a reorganization to bring better focus to its key customers, and to align itself for accelerated channel growth. The organization will move to a model that focuses on key retail customers, the four national distributors and the group of regional distributors. The new structure also puts added focus on business planning and merchandising, ic strategic initiatives, and supply chain optimization.
The leadership of this new structure [image-nocss] is as follows:
Brad Heetland has been appointed region vice president of national retail accounts. In this role, he will assume responsibility and focus on Kraft's largest 56 retail accounts. Paul Westrich, currently director of retail, will assume national customer manager responsibilities on Speedway, Kroger and Thorntons. Westrich will report directly to Heetland.
Pat Worsham has been appointed customer vice president of national distributors, which include McLane, Coremark, Eby Brown and Hackney. Worsham will lead the team in optimizing distributor programs and results, while growing the retailers that they service.
Brian Washburn has been appointed region vice president of regional accounts. He will lead the sales team focused on growing Kraft's region distributors and retailers, including online sales and DOT Foods. Brian joins the group from the Club team, where he recently served as director of channel development. An announcement on Jubie Ryan will follow shortly.
Separate organizational announcements will follow on Heetland, Worsham, and Washburn's respective organizations.
Jim Joynt, currently customer marketing manager, has been appointed director of IC strategic initiatives and information, focused across growth channels. Ted Shanahan, who is beverage DSD manager, will assume Kraft broker responsibilities for the hardware business and report to Joynt. Dan Woods, currently field category planner on snacks, will assume the role of building IC initiatives and programs with key c-store customers. Woods will report directly to Joynt. Ted Kulas will continue working with the SaMM initiative but now report to Joynt.
Karen Smith has been appointed customer marketing manager reporting to Roos. She joins Kraft's team from HyVee, where she recently served as customer business manager. Smith brings a strong selling and planning background to the team. Marcia Moran, currently customer sales manager on the Long's Drug Team, has been appointed field category planner on snacks reporting to Smith.
Kathleen Byrd will continue to lead the foodservice business.
Tom Tankiewicz, currently senior CBM Tesco, will continue in his role and report directly to Roos.
Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods is one of the world's largest food and beverage companies, with annual revenues of more than $34 billion. It markets a broad portfolio of iconic brands in 155 countries, including seven brands with revenue of more than $1 billion, such as Kraft cheeses, dinners and dressings; Oscar Mayer meats; Philadelphia cream cheese; Post cereals; Nabisco cookies and crackers; Jacobs coffees and Milka chocolates.
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