Schwan’s reorganizes the executive team
Blomingham, Minnesota — At Schwan’s Company, Julie Francis has been elevated to the recently established position of chief operations officer. Ms. Francis will oversee the management groups of several companies of the Schwan’s Co., such as SFC Global Supply Chain Inc., Schwan’s Consumer Brands, and Schwan’s Food Service Inc. She will work under Chief Executive Officer Dimitrios Smyrnios and become a member of the company’s executive leadership team.
As president of Schwan’s Consumer Brands, the division that distributes and sells the company’s branded items to supermarket and club shops, Ms. Francis joined Schwan’s Co. in 2018. She was a director at Nottingham Spirk and senior vice president of commercial and category development for total beverage alcohol at Constellation Brands before coming to Schwan’s. Ms. Francis held different leadership positions at Coca-Cola European Partners for six years and served as chief commercial officer for five years at The Coca-Cola Co. earlier in her career.
Mr. Smyrnios stated, “Julie’s extensive operational and industry experience has helped deliver outstanding results for our business and customers since joining our company.” She is a values-driven leader with a lot of enthusiasm for servicing customers, attaining operational excellence, fostering profitable growth, and mentoring others. Julie’s enthusiasm for motivating individuals and groups has improved our company’s operations and culture. I’m thrilled to see Julie take on this much responsibility at Schwan’s.
Brian Schiegg will take up Ms. Francis’s position as president of Schwan’s Consumer Brands. Mr. Schiegg’s new position will involve overseeing the expansion of several brands, such as Red Baron, Tony’s and Freschetta pizza, Mrs. Smith’s and Edwards desserts, Bibigo, Pagoda, Minh, andKahiki Asian foods. He will report to Ms. Francis and serve on the company’s executive leadership team.
Most recently, Mr. Schiegg led all US sales, worldwide business units, marketing, planning, production, global ingredients, and supply chain operations as COO and president of Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. He worked as a commodity trader for Cargill for more than 17 years prior to joining Ocean Spray, and he also held management positions at Mars, Inc.
“Brian has successfully led profitable growth across a variety of geographies and categories throughout his career, and I look forward to working closely with him as we continue to bring delicious foods to families everywhere and provide the best customer service possible,” Ms. Francis stated.
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“As a company, we are truly fortunate to have both of these outstanding leaders on our team,” Mr. Smyrnios continued. Their wideknowledge and expertise in the food industry, strong customer focus and outstanding leadership will help us strengthen our operations, bring elevated service to our customers, and achieve our growth objectives.”