As we reported earlier this week Australian biscuit giant Arnott has plans to restructure its Australian and New Zealand operations into three separate business units as it seeks further growth in the region.
But the man credited as the steering force behind Snack Foods, the company about to be swallowed up by Arnott's, will not be there, reports IndustrySearch.com.
Snack Foods managing director Simon Rowell, who led the company for the past 11 years, will leave after Arnott's completes its $258 million (€141m) takeover of the potato chips and sweets maker. Arnott's said Rowell would take on a short-term strategic role with the combined organisation to work on a strategic review of the businesses and integration issues before departing.
According to Arnott's its planned new organisation structure would allow it to better meet its growth ambitions in Australia and the Asia Pacific region and would also take into account its increased size and scale after the Snack Foods takeover.
"On completion of the merger with Snack Foods, we will have created one of Australia's major food companies with 4,000 employees located in every state and territory and list sales of more than $1 billion," Arnott's Campbell's regional president John Doumani said.
"We will have three distinct manufacturing and marketing streams with their own icon brands, products and focus. Our planned new structure will reflect this."
The new Australian and New Zealand business units are Arnott's Biscuits Australia/NZ, Campbell's Soup and Arnott's Snack Foods, the latter subject to the completion of Arnott's Biscuits Holdings' takeover of Snack Foods.
Arnott's said the implementation of the planned new structure may take some time and would be subject to a strategic review.
"We believe that it will make sense to move, over time, the Players and Alexanders businesses (from Snack Foods Ltd) into the Arnott's Biscuits business unit and to move the Kettle and Rix salty snack brands (from Arnott's) to the newly created Arnott's Snack Foods business unit," Doumani said.
Arnott's/Campbell's will also reshape its Asia Pacific management team. Peter West will be the general manager of Arnott's Biscuits Australia. Snack Foods chief operating officer Shane Noble will head up the proposed Arnott's Snack Foods business unit.