Baking & Snack - June 2017 - 16

Flowers unveils 'enhanced' organizational structure
Flowers Foods, Inc., Thomasville, GA, unveiled plans to restructure the company into two business units and realign key leadership roles. The moves are 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," according to the company.
Over the next several months, Flowers will divide the company
into Fresh Bakery and Specialty/Snacking units. Its current DirectStore-Delivery and Warehouse segments will remain until the new
structure is in place. Flowers expects full implementation sometime during fiscal 2018.
"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 Shiver, 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 struc-

ture will allow us to achieve our strategic objectives and deliver
enhanced value for shareholders."
Flowers also detailed a series of changes to the company's leadership team. The executives will remain in their current roles until
the new structure is implemented.
R. Steve Kinsey, currently executive vice-president and CFO, will
be chief financial and administrative officer. Bradley Alexander,
currently executive vice-president and COO, will be president of
fresh bread. David Roach, currently senior vice-president of organics, will be president of specialty/snacking. D. Keith Wheeler,
currently president of Flowers Bakeries, will be chief sales officer.
Stephen Avera, currently executive vice-president, secretary and
general counsel, will be chief legal counsel. Robert Benton Jr., currently senior vice-president and chief manufacturing officer, will
be chief supply chain officer. A. Ryals McMullian Jr., currently
vice-president of mergers and acquisitions, will be chief human
resources officer.
- Eric Schroeder, Milling & Baking News

Information overload causing consumers to doubt food choices
Conflicting information about food, nutrition and what products
consumers may want to consider eating or avoiding is making
people doubt the choices they make, according to the International
Food Information Council Foundation's (IFIC) 2017 Food and
Health Survey. In the survey, a majority of consumers said they
seek health benefits from what they eat and drink, most notably
weight loss, cardiovascular health, energy and digestive health, but
almost half said they are unable to identify a single food or nutrient associated with the benefits.
For example, while sources of omega-3 fatty acids such as fish
oil may contribute to heart health, just 12% of respondents made
an association between them. While people are interested in getting energy benefits, less than 5% could name caffeine as providing that.
"As in previous years, the Food and Health Survey has shown
that Americans feel overwhelmed by conflicting food and nutrition information," said Joseph Clayton, president and CEO of
IFIC. "But this year, we're finding troubling signs that the information glut is translating into faulty decisions about our diets
and health.
"As policymakers work to revise the Nutrition Facts Panel and
define 'healthy' on food labels, it's more crucial than ever before
that we empower consumers with accurate information based on
the best available science, in terms they can easily understand and
put into action," he added.
Compounding the problem may be how consumers perceive

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what is healthy and unhealthy, the survey said. Consumers may associate such product formats as fresh, frozen or canned with health
and nutrition. They might also associate where they purchase a
product, such as a c-store vs. a health food store, with the overall nutritional quality of a product. The survey showed that with
nutritionally identical products, consumers are almost five times
more likely to believe a fresh product is healthier than a canned
version. In regard to frozen vs. fresh, survey respondents were four
times more likely to consider the fresh format healthier.
- Keith Nunes, Food Business News

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Baking & Snack - June 2017

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