THOMASVILLE, Ga., May 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at its annual
leadership meeting, Flowers Foods (NYSE: FLO) announced an enhanced
organizational structure designed to provide greater focus on the
company's strategic objectives under Project Centennial, emphasize
brand growth and innovation in line with a national branded food
company, drive enhanced accountability, reduce costs, and
strengthen long-term strategy.
The new organizational structure establishes two business units
(BUs), Fresh Bakery and Specialty/Snacking, and realigns key
leadership roles. The company will transition to the new structure
over the next several months with full implementation expected
during fiscal 2018. The current Direct-Store-Delivery and Warehouse
segmentation will remain until the new structure is in place.
"This change in our organizational structure is an important
step for Flowers as we take decisive action to focus on the
consumer and remove complexity and costs from our business," said
Allen L. Shiver, Flowers Foods
President and CEO. "Strategically dividing our business into Fresh
Bakery and Specialty/Snacking will reinvigorate each unit and
enable them to take actions to drive growth for their respective
brand portfolios and product categories. We also are realigning our
leadership structure to better address the changing consumer and
operating environment, and drive to be a more efficient and
effective organization. I am confident our new structure will allow
us to achieve our strategic objectives and deliver enhanced value
for shareholders."
New Business Units to Drive Increased Focus on the
Consumer
The Fresh Bakery BU will include Flowers' core and growth bread
brands, including Nature's Own, Wonder, Dave's
Killer Bread, and Cobblestone Bread Company. Fresh
Bakery's mission will be to drive brand growth and profitability
through incremental innovation, consistent execution, and
cost-efficiency.
The Snacking/Specialty BU will consist of Flowers' product lines
outside of the retail bread aisle. This BU will be responsible for
the company's snack cake brands, Tastykake and Mrs.
Freshley's, specialty bread brands including Alpine
Valley, and Flowers' foodservice business. Reflecting the
opportunity to grow in these underdeveloped categories, the mission
of the Snacking/Specialty BU will be to drive brand growth and
profitability through new product innovation and build scale in
growing categories.
The new structure also provides for centralized marketing,
sales, supply chain, shared-service/administrative, and corporate
strategy functions, each with clearly defined roles and
responsibilities. Specifically:
- The centralized marketing function will support both BUs by
driving consumer insights, building brand awareness, and developing
a leading R&D capability;
- The new sales organization will provide richer engagement with
the company's independent distributor partners and support each
BU's strategies with stronger execution at both a national and
local level;
- An enterprise-wide supply chain function will promote greater
efficiencies among Flowers' production and distribution networks,
while maintaining the best-in-class quality that the company's
brands are known for;
- Expansion of the company's shared-service and administrative
functions will allow for greater leverage of Flowers' scale and
continue to deliver ongoing cost containment actions; and
- A corporate strategy function will advise the CEO and senior
leadership team on long-term strategy, acquisitions, and other
corporate development activities.
Senior Leadership Team Aligned with Strategic
Initiatives
In connection with the organizational redesign,
the company has realigned the senior leadership team that will
report to Shiver. Until the new structure is implemented, these
individuals will continue to serve in their current roles.
- R. Steve Kinsey, currently
Executive Vice President (EVP) and CFO, will be Chief Financial
& Administrative Officer.
- Bradley K. Alexander, currently
EVP and COO, will be Business Unit President, Fresh Packaged
Bread.
- David M. Roach, currently Senior
Vice President (SVP) of Organics, will be Business Unit President,
Specialty/Snacking.
- D. Keith Wheeler, currently
President of Flowers Bakeries, will be Chief Sales Officer.
- Stephen R. Avera, currently EVP,
Secretary & General Counsel, will be Chief Legal Counsel.
- Robert L. Benton, Jr., currently
SVP and Chief Manufacturing Officer, will be Chief Supply Chain
Officer.
- A. Ryals McMullian, Jr.,
currently Vice President of M&A and Deputy General Counsel,
will be Chief Strategy Officer.
- Tonja W. Taylor, currently SVP
of Human Resources, will be Chief Human Resources Officer.
- The position of Chief Marketing Officer is currently being
recruited.
About Project Centennial
In June of 2016, the company
launched Project Centennial, an enterprise-wide business and
operational review to evaluate opportunities to streamline our
operations, drive efficiencies, and invest in strategic
capabilities that Flowers believes will strengthen its competitive
position and drive profitable revenue growth. Based on the results
of this review, Flowers identified the four primary strategic
initiatives listed below. The company implemented a plan to
transition to these primary strategies in fiscal 2017 with the
transition expected to be completed by fiscal 2021.
- Reinvigorate the core business – invest in the growth and
innovation of our core brands, streamline our brand and product
portfolio, improve trade promotion management, and strengthen our
partnership with distributors so they can grow their
businesses
- Capitalize on product adjacencies – greater focus on growing
segments of the bakery category, such as foodservice, in-store
bakery, impulse items, and healthy snacking
- Reduce costs to fuel growth – reduce complexity and better
leverage scale to lower costs
- Develop leading capabilities – invest in capabilities to become
a more centralized and analytics-focused company
About Flowers Foods
Headquartered in Thomasville, Ga., Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:
FLO) is one of the largest producers of fresh packaged bakery foods
in the United States with 2016
sales of $3.9 billion. Flowers
operates bakeries across the country that produce a wide range of
bakery products. Among the company's top brands are Nature's
Own, Wonder, Tastykake, and Dave's Killer
Bread. Learn more at www.flowersfoods.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements contained in
this press release that are not historical facts are
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate to
current expectations regarding our future financial condition,
performance and results of operations, planned capital
expenditures, long-term objectives of management, supply and
demand, pricing trends and market forces, and integration plans and
expected benefits of transactions and are often identified by the
use of words and phrases such as "anticipate," "believe,"
"continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan,"
"predict," "project," "should," "will," "would," "is likely to,"
"is expected to" or "will continue," or the negative of these terms
or other comparable terminology. All forward-looking statements are
subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results
to differ from those projected. Other factors that may cause actual
results to differ from the forward-looking statements contained in
this release and that may affect the company's prospects in general
include, but are not limited to (a) competitive conditions in the
baked foods industry, including promotional and price competition,
(b) changes in consumer demand for our products, including changes
in consumer behavior, trends and preferences, including health and
whole grain trends, and the movement toward more inexpensive
store-branded products, (c) the success of productivity
improvements and new product introductions, (d) a significant
reduction in business with any of our major customers including a
reduction from adverse developments in any of our customer's
business, (e) fluctuations in commodity pricing, (f) energy and raw
material costs and availability and hedging and counterparty risk,
(g) our ability to fully integrate recent acquisitions into our
business, (h) our ability to achieve cash flow from capital
expenditures and acquisitions and the availability of new
acquisitions that build shareholder value; (i) consolidation within
the baking industry and related industries; (j) disruptions in our
direct-store delivery system, including litigation or an adverse
ruling from a court or regulatory or government body that could
affect the independent contractor classification of our independent
distributors, and (k) the failure of our information technology
systems to perform adequately, including any interruptions,
intrusions or security breaches of such systems. The foregoing list
of important factors does not include all such factors, nor
necessarily present them in order of importance. In addition, you
should consult other disclosures made by the company, including the
risk factors included in our most recently filed Annual Report on
Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and disclosures made in
other filings with the SEC and company press releases, for other
factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from
those projected by the company. We caution you not to place undue
reliance on forward-looking statements, as they speak only as of
the date made and are inherently uncertain. The company undertakes
no obligation to publicly revise or update such statements, except
as required by law.
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SOURCE Flowers Foods, Inc.