Milling & Baking News Corporate Profiles - 2017 - 82

Company Overview

Flowers Foods, Inc.
New organizational structure, core brand focus

he Flowers Foods, Inc. of the future began taking shape in 2017 with the development and launch of a major restructuring plan. The initiative emanated from Project
Centennial, announced in 2016 as a companywide review.
Under a new organizational structure, Flowers Foods will operate two business units -
Fresh Packaged Bread and Snacking/Specialty.
Currently, the company operates a Direct Store
Delivery division and a Warehouse division. The
objective for the bread division will be optimizing profitability and supporting growth of the
company's core bread brands. For the snack
business, Flowers will be seeking to "drive
growth in products outside the retail bread
aisle," the company said. The second unit's
product lines will include snack cake brands,
specialty bread brands (including Alpine Valley), and Flowers' food service business. The
divisions will have distinct sales, marketing,
supply chain and administrative/strategic functions. Transition to the new structure has begun and will continue into 2018. It will be 2019
when the company begins reporting operating
results based on the new divisions.
"Project Centennial is a comprehensive,
company-wide program to streamline operations, drive efficiencies and invest in strategic

Chief executive officer -
Allen L. Shiver

82 \ October 2017

capabilities," Allen L. Shiver, president and
chief executive officer, said in a Sept. 27 Investor Day presentation at the New York Stock
Exchange. "This is a management-driven initiative that has the 100% support from our
board. Very important. This is our leadership
team driving Project Centennial. We began
Project Centennial last year with an evaluation of our brands, our product mix and, also,
our organizational structure."
Related to the new structure, in July Flowers announced a voluntary employee separation plan (VSIP) to certain salaried employees
meeting defined age, length-of-service and
business function criteria. The VSIP is meant
to help the company "restructure, streamline
operations and better position the company for
profitable growth," Flowers said.
At the Investor Day meeting, R. Steve Kinsey,
chief administrative officer and chief financial
officer, said the program had closed and, together with other initiatives, will result in a net
overall headcount reduction of approximately
450 associates, including a 15% reduction in
management positions, Mr. Kinsey said.
"As the new structure goes into place, we
will remove roles that were associated with
our previous regional model, and we will add
positions that bring new talent and expertise
to the Flowers team that we need to thrive in
an evolving retail and consumer landscape,"
he said. "For example, as we announced earlier this week we have brought on Harish Ramani who has experience leading I.T. transformation as our new c.i.o."
That same week in late September, Flowers
announced the hiring of Debo Mukherjee for the
newly created role of chief marketing officer at
Flowers Foods, Inc. Mr. Mukherjee will lead the
company's marketing and branding initiatives
and play a role in product innovation. Earlier in
his career, he held marketing positions at H.J.
Heinz Co., Unilever P.L.C. and The Hershey Co.
Purchasing and supply chain are other
areas targeted by Flowers for cost savings,
Mr. Kinsey said.
"In the near term, we're going after savings

Flowers Foods, Inc.
net income
in millions
2016

$163.8

2015

$189.2

2014

$175.7

Flowers Foods, Inc.
net sales
in millions
2016

$3,927

2015

$3,779

2014

$3,749

Flowers Foods, Inc.
share price

per share
$24

$20

$16

$12
Sept. Dec. Mar. June Sept.
2016
2017

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