Smithfield Foods announces restructure
Key members of its senior management team will be reorganised as part of the move, which Smithfield hopes will unify all of its independent operating companies, brands, marketing and employees.
Its operations will now be managed under four divisions: Packaged Meats, Fresh Pork, Hog Production and International.
The Packaged Meats arm will include all of the company’s packaged meats businesses that have previously operated under Smithfield Farmland and John Morrell Food Group. Fresh Pork will encompass the former Smithfield Farmland fresh pork operations, while its Hog Production and International businesses will retain their existing structure and leadership while operating under the new divisional structure, it said.
C Larry Pope, president and chief executive of Smithfield Foods, said the launch of the new structure would better support its people, brand and customers "while positioning Smithfield to take advantage of opportunities for growth".
"Moving to a centralised structure and bringing our resources and brands together into these four operating divisions enables us to best utilise management talent across the company and maintain our commitment to serving our customers as we always have, while more effectively providing our full array of products.
"Further, we are excited about the potential to leverage marketing programs and sponsorships, such as our involvement in NASCAR, across all of our brands."
The company also stressed that it was committed to growing and evolving the business without any plant or office closures, or reducing its workforce.
Smithfield Foods has also announced a number of new senior management appointments, with effect from 1 March 2015. Kenneth M Sullivan will assume the role of executive vice-president, in addition to his current role as chief financial officer. Joseph B Sebring has been appointed president of the Packaged Meats division, and Scott Saunders has been promoted to present of the Fresh Pork division.
Gregg Schmidt will continue to lead Smithfield’s livestock production subsidiary Murphy-Brown LLC, as president of the Hog Production division, and Darek Nowakowski will continue as president of Smithfield Europe, whose investments comprise the majority of its International division.
