Kraft Heinz is bringing back Paulo Basilio as the US food major’s finance chief to replace David Knopf who is leaving to return to private-equity firm – and co-owner – 3G Capital.
The Illinois-based ketchup-to-cheese maker also simultaneously announced a new position, chief growth officer, which will be filled by Nina Barton, the president of its Canada division and also president of digital growth.
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Both Basilio and Barton will take up their new positions on 1 September, the Nasdaq-listed firm said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Newly-installed chief executive Miguel Patricio is making the changes after a poor run of results, which most recently included another US$1.2bn write down to add to the $15.4bn reported in February. After posting declines across all its metrics for the first six months of the current fiscal year, the CEO expressed his disappointment
At the time, he said: “The level of decline we experienced in the first half of this year is nothing we should find acceptable moving forward. We have significant work ahead of us to set our strategic priorities and change the trajectory of our business.”
Incoming CFO Basilio held that same role at H.J. Heinz before it was merged with Kraft Foods Group four years ago to become Kraft Heinz. He continued as finance chief under the new entity until October 2017 before moving on to become president of the US commercial business until July this year, when he became the chief business planning and development officer.
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By GlobalDataMeanwhile, Barton will oversee Kraft Heinz’s organic growth and “developing capabilities”, while Bruno Keller, who serves as the head of category development in Canada, will succeed her as zone president of Canada.
Existing CFO Knopf, who is also an executive vice president at Kraft Heinz, has been a partner at 3G Capital – the private-equity firm that joined hands with businessman Warren Buffett to buy H.J. Heinz and then Kraft Foods Group – since 2015. While at Kraft Heinz he has served as vice president, the category head of the Planters peanuts business and vice president of finance, head of global budget and business planning, zero-based budgeting, and financial and strategic planning.
See just-food’s analysis of the latest results: Markets in limbo after Kraft Heinz disappoints again – key takeaways on H1 results
