Cold Foods Industry News

Maple Leaf Foods’ COO to retire, and more personnel announcements

PROCESSORS/RETAILERS/DISTRIBUTORS:
Sysco Corp., Houston, Texas
Greg Bertrand was promoted to executive vice president, U.S. foodservice operations, effective July 30, responsible for maintaining leadership oversight for Sysco’s U.S. foodservice operations segment. Bertrand joined Sysco in 1991, and after a succession of senior foodservice operations positions, was named senior vice president, U.S. foodservice operations in 2016.

Maple Leaf Foods, Canada
Gary Maksymetz, chief operating officer, announced plans to retire at the end of September. Maksymetz has been chief operating officer since 2014, where he led a wide range of functions and drove major strategic initiatives. Curtis Frank, who has served as senior vice president, retail since 2014, will assume the role of chief operating officer, effective Oct. 1. In this capacity, he will maintain overall executive responsibility for the company's prepared meats, fresh pork and poultry operations and commercial activities, and lead the development and implementation of strategic business initiatives. Frank maintains over 18 years of experience at Maple Leaf. As senior vice president retail, he led a high-performance North American sales organization and executed several strategic initiatives, including the company's recent brand renovation and U.S. sales expansion.

Borden Dairy Co., Dallas, Texas
Adrienne Chance was appointed to the newly created position of senior director of corporate communications, responsible for internal and external communications strategy. Chance has led the communications team at Topgolf for the past six years, where she oversaw communications through 36 venue openings, two acquisitions and a quadrupling of Topgolf’s workforce. Chance has also worked at Southwest Airlines and T-System.

The Kroger Co., Cincinnati
Ken DeLuca was promoted to president of the Michigan division, effective Aug. 1, succeeding Scott Hays, who was promoted to president of the Cincinnati/Dayton division earlier this month. DeLuca currently serves as vice president of operations for the Dillons division. DeLuca returns to the division where he began his Kroger career in 1988 as a store clerk. In 1990, he began Kroger's management training program, and went on to hold multiple leadership positions in the Michigan division, including store manager, grocery coordinator, category management, labor relations manager, human resources director and operations district manager. In 2004, he moved to the Columbus division as operations district manager, and in 2005, was promoted to retail operations vice president for the Dillons division. DeLuca was promoted to vice president of merchandising in 2008, and then to vice president of operations earlier this year.

The Fresh Connection, Lafayette, Calif.
Loring Tocchini joined as vice president of sales of the Americas. Tocchini maintains 34 years of produce industry sales experience, the last 30 of which have been in internationally directed sales to the Asian market place on fresh fruit. Most recently, Tocchini served as president of Loris Resources, LLC, where he established programs and grew sales over a 20-year period on some of the top brands distributed throughout Asia and India on fresh apples, pears and cherries out of Washington State.

Bonipak Produce Inc., Santa Maria, Calif.
Stan Otremba was promoted to director of sales, responsible for managing all aspects of Bonipak’s sales for each of the groups the company serves, including retail, wholesale, clubs and foodservice. Otremba has been a Bonipak employee for more than 20 years, and brings a unique blend of farming expertise, leadership capabilities and interpersonal skills to his new role. Otremba began his career at Bonipak as a harvesting manager, before transitioning into sales. There, he started as an account manager, was promoted to national account manager and advanced to sales manager before becoming the director of sales.

Grupo Lala, S.A.B. of C.V., Mexico City, Mexico
Mauricio Leyva Arboleda will assume the general management of the company, effective Sept. 1, taking over for Scot Rank, who is leave his chief executive officer position Aug. 31. Leyva Arboleda worked for more than 13 years at AB InBev, was president of the Middle Americas zone and chief executive officer of Grupo Modelo. He was instrumental in the integration of SABMiller and the expansion of the Corona beer brand internationally with constant double-digit growth. He maintains more than 25 years of experience managing global consumer, commercial and communications companies in geographies as diverse as Europe, the United States, Africa, Central America and South America, including his native Colombia. Previously, he served as vice president of marketing and sales at Aviancas, accountable for the commercial operations with presence in 12 countries. Prior to that, he was vice president of marketing and sales at América Movil.

Greencore USA, Woodridge, Ill.
Anton Vincent was appointed chief executive officer, effective July 9. Vincent maintains over 20 years’ leadership in the U.S. food manufacturing industry. Most recently, he served as president of General Mills’ U.S. snacks division. Vincent began his career at General Mills in 1993, progressing through leadership roles, including executive roles as president of Frozen Frontier division and president of baking division. His career experiences include leadership roles at MCI Telecommunications (now Verizon) and Fidelity Investments. He is also a former Applebee’s International franchisee.

SUPPLIERS:
Aborn & Co., Norwell, Mass.
Jill Clifford was named president. Clifford maintains over 25 years of leadership experience in a variety of high acting roles with Aborn & Co., including business development, marketing, accounting and customer relations. Previously, Clifford was responsible for expanding her own team with the additions of Chris Peckham as director of operations and Timothy Dooner as director of marketing. She also appointed Caleb Johnson in account management and Nathan Shnipes in data analytics.

Everidge, Minneapolis
Greg Ginther was named business development sales manager for the company’s ICS brand, responsible for developing, implementing and sustaining new sales opportunities for the ICS product lines. Ginther has worked at The New Bakery Co. of Ohio for 18 years, most recently serving as director of sales.

ITC Manufacturing, Phoenix, Ariz.
Mark Briden was named new chief executive officer and chief financial officer, assuming day-to-day leadership of the company and overseeing strategic growth and financial aspects. Briden began his career co-owning an e-commerce company, then moved on to become a financial and operational consultant focusing on financial restructuring and performance improvements and mergers and acquisitions. He also held interim management positions at middle-market manufacturing and construction companies. Briden maintains more than 15 years of finance and executive leadership experience, including serving as interim CFO for ITC for the past year.

SPX FLOW, Charlotte, N.C.
Jeffrey Pato was named district sales manager for Eastern Canada, tasked with further growing the SPX FLOW food and beverage business in that region. Pato maintains a strong engineering background.

SUN Automation Group, Glen Arm, Md.
Chris Kyger was named president. Previously, Kyger served as vice president of SUN Automation Group, where he implemented new systems and a customer-focused approach to innovation and product development. Kyger joined SUN over a decade ago, and maintains over 25 years in the corrugated industry, having also worked for Staley, Langston and United Container Machinery. He has also worked in field service, sales, operations and aftermarket parts and service, and maintains over 20 years of management, customer relationship and technology experience. Kyger is also an active member of TAPPI, Fibre Box Association and AICC, The Independent Packaging Association.

IN MEMORIUM: ARTHUR FRANCIS LA LONDE JR., VALLEY FRUIT & PRODUCE CO.

Arthur Francis La Londe Jr., co-founder of Valley Fruit & Produce Co., Los Angeles, passed away peacefully on July 19.

The son of the late Arthur La Londe Sr. and Aurelia La Londe, Art served in the U.S. Navy at 19 years old, and retired shortly after the end of World War II to attend college.

Art is considered to be one of the pioneers in the Los Angeles produce industry.

Art by Sylvia, his wife of 41 years, his companion, Xiomara and his children Stephen La Londe, Douglas La Londe, Caron Roccanova and Lynn Allen. Art will also be remembered by his brother Donald La Londe, sister Suzanne King, his 10 grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Services to celebrate his life will be held on Sept. 15 at noon at Christ the King Church, 624 N. Rossmore Ave., Los Angeles, California 90004.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105 / donors@stjude.org.