J.M. Smucker to Focus on Sweet Baked Snacks as New Business Unit

The J. M. Smucker Co. has formed a new strategic business area — Sweet Baked Snacks. With that, the officer election of Dan O'Leary to senior vice president and general manager of Sweet Baked Snacks and Pet, effective immediately.

The company has also announced a series of leadership changes to support the business following closing of its Hostess Brands acquisition.

strategic business area structure to support the expanded family of brands and to continue to advance its strategy. The new structure includes strategic businesses overseen by Board-elected General Managers, all reporting to John Brase, Chief Operating Officer.

"We are excited to share this updated strategic business area structure and the leaders who will drive the continued momentum of our leading brands in these growing categories," said Mark Smucker, chair of the Board, president and chief executive officer. "With this newly created structure, we are better positioned to take advantage of synergies, which will allow us to leverage the best-in-class expertise we have in our organization around innovation, marketing, commercial activation and supply chain management."

O'Leary assumes his new role following his time serving as chief growth officer at Hostess Brands Inc., where he oversaw the full family of brands and drove profitable growth in the competitive snacking market. O'Leary brings more than 20 years of experience across marketing, brand building, innovation, M&A and growth strategy. Before joining Hostess in 2021, O'Leary led Tyson Foods' retail prepared foods group as senior vice president and general manager and held leadership roles at Kraft Foods and Mizkan America.

Ferguson takes on his new role following his leadership of the company's pet business since 2020. His leadership has been instrumental in the successful reshape of the pet food and pet snacks business, including continued growth for the leading dog snacks brand in the market, Milk-Bone®, and establishing a leadership position with its Meow Mix cat food brand. Ferguson joined the company in 2015 via the Smucker's acquisition of Big Heart Pet Brands, where he held leadership roles in strategy, operations, supply chain and procurement, prior to his election as Smucker senior vice president, Supply Chain.

Additional changes were made at the company with an integrated portfolio management organization, inclusive of Transformation initiatives.

With this decision, the Company will align Strategy, Finance, Transformation and Information Services under the leadership of Tucker Marshall, chief financial officer. This updated alignment will enable the close connection between the Company's margin-management objectives and its multiple planning processes with short- and long-term horizons.

"We will continue to advance the great work that has been done to establish our Transformation vision and structure through this evolved organization, which will enable greater cohesion among leadership across the business," said Marshall. "In this next phase of our journey, we will further integrate Transformation with the broader strategy of the Company while continuing to embed the vision across all planning processes. I look forward to supporting our continued progress, which will help us deliver on our commitment to continuous improvement and creating greater organizational flexibility and agility."

Amy Held, chief transformation officer; Joe Stanziano, senior vice president and general manager, Coffee; Gagnesh Gupta, senior vice president, Procurement and Commodities, will transition from the company, effective February 2, 2024; December 1, 2023; and December 29, 2023, respectively.