Is it just us, or are consumers and competition raising the stakes for food plants?
Global investor groups are evaluating CPG giants’ carbon reduction efforts. Retail and foodservice market competition is forcing processors to develop better and more new products at a faster pace. Add to that the increasingly difficult to predict cost of doing business, which - particularly in the case of energy - is only expected to rise.
How do senior operations executives handle these and other challenges? Refrigerated & Frozen Foods went straight to the source. Operations executives from four refrigerated and frozen food processors gave us their opinions on the changing face of the industry: Chris Celeslie, vice president of operations at Little Lady Foods, an Elk Grove, Ill., co-packer of frozen pizzas, sandwiches and other products; David Cowperthwait, senior vice president of manufacturing at McCain Foods USA, a Lisle, Ill.-based processor of frozen potato, snack and pizza products; David Konst, senior vice president of operations at Rich Products Corp., a Buffalo, N.Y.-based processor of frozen bakery foods, seafood, snacks, non-dairy products, barbecue meats and Italian entrees; and Dan Milovanovic, senior vice president of North American operations at OSI Group, an Aurora, Ill.-based giant with operations in prepared beef, pork and poultry products as well as prepared entrees.