— Appointment to become effective on June
14, 2021 —
B&G Foods, Inc. (NYSE: BGS) announced today that it has
appointed Kenneth C. “Casey” Keller, age 59, as its next President
and Chief Executive Officer, effective June 14, 2021. Mr. Keller
will succeed B&G Foods’ Interim President and Chief Executive
Officer, David L. Wenner, who will remain a director of the Company
and will work closely with Mr. Keller to ensure a seamless
transition. Mr. Keller will also be elected to B&G Foods’ Board
of Directors.
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Kenneth C. "Casey" Keller (Photo:
Business Wire)
Most recently, Mr. Keller served as president and CEO of JDE
Peet’s NV, a $7 billion global coffee and tea company with over
20,000 employees based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He led the
merger of Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) and Peet’s Coffee, Inc. and
the successful initial public offering of the combined company in
May 2020. Prior to the merger, Mr. Keller was the president and CEO
of Peet’s Coffee, a premium specialty coffee company based in
California, and led the business through rapid growth in the United
States and successful expansion into China.
Prior to that, Mr. Keller served as global president of the Wm.
Wrigley Jr. Company, a subsidiary of Mars, Inc., where he was
responsible for delivering sales and profit growth across the
global gum, mints and candy business. He joined Wrigley in 2011 as
president of Wrigley North America and later assumed responsibility
for Wrigley Americas. In the United States, the company’s largest
global market, Mr. Keller led a turnaround of the Wrigley business,
delivering growth well above the industry average. During the
integration of Wrigley into Mars, Mr. Keller helped establish the
global business units and strategy for the combined Mars-Wrigley
confectionery business.
Mr. Keller served as president of Alberto Culver USA from 2008
until the company’s acquisition by Unilever in 2011. He also worked
at the H.J. Heinz Company in both the United States and Europe,
leading the ketchup, condiments and sauces division in the United
States and was the CEO of Heinz Italy. Mr. Keller began his
consumer goods career with Procter & Gamble.
Mr. Keller earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell
University and served for four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy
before receiving his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from
Harvard Business School.
Stephen C. Sherrill, Chairman of the Board of Directors of
B&G Foods, stated, “We feel extremely fortunate to add Casey to
our already very strong management team. Casey is a food and
beverage industry veteran with excellent leadership skills and a
proven track record of generating revenue and earnings growth.
Casey also has experience with mergers & acquisitions and
public company finance, most recently guiding JDE and Peet’s Coffee
through a successful merger and post-merger IPO. We believe that
Casey is the right person to lead B&G Foods and drive our
organic and M&A growth strategy, promote our core values,
promote our ESG and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts,
and generate value for our stockholders.”
Mr. Sherrill continued, “I would like to express my appreciation
to the Board’s special committee on CEO succession, which was
chaired by Dennis Mullen and included DeAnn Brunts, Chuck Marcy and
Rob Mills. The committee conducted an extensive, thorough and
intense search process that produced many exceptional candidates.
It is exciting to see B&G Foods generate such a field of
incredibly talented candidates as we continue to grow as a company,
and I look forward to Casey leading B&G Foods into the future
and toward continued growth.”
“On behalf of the entire company, I would also like to thank
Dave Wenner for his service as our Interim President and CEO.
Dave’s incredibly strong leadership skills, breadth of experience,
integrity and passion for our business have been invaluable as he
has guided us through this transition period.”
Mr. Keller stated, “I am incredibly excited to be joining
B&G Foods and its very talented and dedicated workforce. We
will continue to focus on organic and acquisition growth,
innovation, operational improvements, cost reduction efforts and
the creation of stockholder value. At the same time, we will also
continue to promote and further enhance B&G Foods’ corporate
social responsibility efforts, including the company’s
environmental, sustainability and DEI efforts.”
Mr. Wenner stated, “I would like to thank all B&G Foods
employees for their tremendous efforts. It has been a very
rewarding experience to once again lead our company, work with our
talented executive leadership team, and reinforce the principles
and strategies that have helped create tremendous value for all of
our stakeholders over the years. I look forward to continuing to
serve on B&G Foods’ Board of Directors and assisting with
Casey’s transition.”
About B&G Foods, Inc.
Based in Parsippany, New Jersey, B&G Foods and its
subsidiaries manufacture, sell and distribute high-quality, branded
shelf-stable and frozen foods across the United States, Canada and
Puerto Rico. With B&G Foods’ diverse portfolio of more than 50
brands you know and love, including Back to Nature, B&G,
B&M, Bear Creek, Cream of Wheat, Crisco, Dash, Green Giant, Las
Palmas, Le Sueur, Mama Mary’s, Maple Grove Farms, New York Style,
Ortega, Polaner, Spice Islands and Victoria, there’s a little
something for everyone. For more information about B&G Foods
and its brands, please visit www.bgfoods.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release that are not statements of
historical or current fact constitute “forward-looking statements.”
The forward-looking statements contained in this press release
include, without limitation, statements related to the CEO
transition and the Company’s strategies, growth plans and corporate
social responsibility efforts. Such forward-looking statements
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unknown
factors that could cause the actual results of B&G Foods to be
materially different from the historical results or from any future
results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In
addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and
uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements labeled
with the terms “believes,” “belief,” “expects,” “projects,”
“intends,” “anticipates,” “assumes,” “could,” “should,”
“estimates,” “potential,” “seek,” “predict,” “may,” “will” or
“plans” and similar references to future periods to be uncertain
and forward-looking. Factors that may affect actual results
include, without limitation: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on
the Company’s business, including, without limitation, the ability
of the Company and its supply chain partners to continue to operate
manufacturing facilities, distribution centers and other work
locations without material disruption; whether and when the Company
will be able to realize the expected financial results and
accretive effect of the Crisco acquisition, and how customers,
competitors, suppliers and employees will react to the acquisition;
the Company’s substantial leverage; the effects of rising costs for
the Company’s raw materials, packaging and ingredients; crude oil
prices and their impact on distribution, packaging and energy
costs; the Company’s ability to successfully implement sales price
increases and cost saving measures to offset any cost increases;
intense competition, changes in consumer preferences, demand for
the Company’s products and local economic and market conditions;
the Company’s continued ability to promote brand equity
successfully, to anticipate and respond to new consumer trends, to
develop new products and markets, to broaden brand portfolios in
order to compete effectively with lower priced products and in
markets that are consolidating at the retail and manufacturing
levels and to improve productivity; the risks associated with the
expansion of the Company’s business; the Company’s possible
inability to identify new acquisitions or to integrate recent or
future acquisitions or the Company’s failure to realize anticipated
revenue enhancements, cost savings or other synergies from recent
or future acquisitions; the Company’s ability to successfully
complete the integration of recent or future acquisitions into the
Company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system; tax reform and
legislation, including the effects of the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs
Act and the U.S. CARES Act; the Company’s ability to access the
credit markets and the Company’s borrowing costs and credit
ratings, which may be influenced by credit markets generally and
the credit ratings of the Company’s competitors; unanticipated
expenses, including, without limitation, litigation or legal
settlement expenses; the effects of currency movements of the
Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso as compared to the U.S.
dollar; the effects of international trade disputes, tariffs,
quotas, and other import or export restrictions on the Company’s
international procurement, sales and operations; future impairments
of the Company’s goodwill and intangible assets; the Company’s
ability to protect information systems against, or effectively
respond to, a cybersecurity incident or other disruption; the
Company’s sustainability initiatives and changes to environmental
laws and regulations; and other factors that affect the food
industry generally. The forward-looking statements contained herein
are also subject generally to other risks and uncertainties that
are described from time to time in B&G Foods’ filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including under Item 1A, “Risk
Factors” in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K
and in its subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8‑K. Investors are
cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. B&G
Foods undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
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Investor Relations: ICR, Inc. Dara Dierks 866.211.8151
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