Fonterra Consolidates Business In Shake-Up
June 29th, 2009
Fonterra will return to where it started by consolidating its diverse core operations into a single business unit, having separated them out shortly after the dairy giant was created. The new tighter focus comes with a shake-up of senior executives and the ascendancy of two – Gary Romano, who will head the new unit, and Andrei Mikhalevsky, who has been tapped as MD of Fonterra Global Ingredients and Foodservices. Mikhalevsky is among the new blood at Fonterra, having joined two years ago from Germany’s Symrise.
CEO, Andrew Ferrier, has whittled down his direct reports to seven from nine with the shake-up, with the departure of milk supply director, Barry Harris, and the relegation of Kelvin Wickham, head of Fonterra GlobalTrade, who will now report to Romano. Ferrier says the consolidation is designed “to drive greater efficiencies in the core business” and sharpen its focus on global ingredients. Ferrier says “for our strategy to be successful, Fonterra’s core must continue to get more and more efficient.”
The shake-up comes as Fonterra, which has annual sales of some $17bn, prepares for leaner times, with intervention buying by the US, the EU and China seen as key supports for prices amid weak demand. The co-operative’s regional brand chiefs – Mark Wilson, covering Asia/Africa and the Middle East, and John Doumani, in charge of Aust-NZ, will continue to answer direct to Ferrier.
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