Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 2/16/15


Smithfield Foods announced it has realigned its organization and key senior management appointments that unify all of its independent operating companies, brands, marketing, and more than 48,000 employees around the world under one corporate umbrella.
Smithfield's business operations will now be organized into Packaged Meats, Fresh Pork, Hog Production and International.

Following the realignment, the Packaged Meats Division will include all of the company's packaged meats business previously operated under Smithfield Farmland and John Morrell Food Group within a single, cohesive division. The company's Fresh Pork division will encompass the former Smithfield Farmland fresh pork operations, and the company's Hog Production and International businesses will retain their existing structure and leadership while operating under the new divisional structure.

Timothy Schellpeper, president and chief operating officer of Smithfield Farmland, has stepped down from his role and will retire on March 31, 2015 after nearly 25 years with the company and its predecessors. Mr. Schellpeper was involved in helping to design the new organizational structure. He will be available to Smithfield for as long as is necessary to ensure a seamless transition.
“In 2013, we promised that under new ownership the company would be 'The same old Smithfield, but better.' We have delivered on that promise, and once again we commit to growing and evolving the Company without closing any plants or offices, or reducing our workforce,” said Smithfield President and CEO C. Larry Pope. “We look forward to maintaining our strong presence in Smithfield, Va.; Kansas City, Mo., Lisle, Ill.; Cincinnati, Ohio; and the many other communities in which our company operates."

In connection with the new divisional operating structure and related consolidation of certain business functions, Smithfield also announced several key senior management appointments, effective March 1, 2015:
• Kenneth Sullivan will assume the title of executive vice president in addition to his current role as Smithfield's chief financial officer, overseeing consolidated finance, administrative and support services. Sullivan was named CFO in 2013. 
• Joseph Sebring has been appointed president, Packaged Meats Division. Sebring brings more than thirty-six years of meat industry experience. He most recently served as president of Smithfield's John Morrell Food Group, which he joined in May 1994. 
• Scott Saunders has been promoted to president, Fresh Pork Division. Saunders, who has nearly 30 years of experience in the food industry, was previously chief financial officer of Smithfield's John Morrell Food Group since 2008.
• Gregg Schmidt will continue to lead Murphy-Brown LLC, the livestock production subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, as president, Hog Production Division. Schmidt was named president of Murphy-Brown and assumed leadership of all of its North American swine production operations in 2013, after having served previously as president of Murphy-Brown East Production Operations from 2011 to 2013 and president of the International Division from 2002 to 2011.
• Darek Nowakowski will continue as president of Smithfield Europe, responsible for all of the company's wholly owned investments in Europe, which compose the majority of the International Division. Nowakowski's experience in the food industry spans more than thirty years. He joined Smithfield in 2006 as President of Animex, Poland's largest producer of packaged and fresh meats. 
Smithfield's new divisional leadership team consisting of Sebring, Saunders, Schmidt and Nowakowski will report directly to Pope.

“We are confident that our new organizational structure will enable our teams to operate more effectively, further unify our approach to the market as 'One Smithfield,' and leverage the company's size and scope in the pork industry,” said Pope.
Smithfield Foods is a $14 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Farmland, Armour, Cook's, Gwaltney, John Morrell, Kretschmar, Curly's, Carando, Margherita and Healthy Ones.
Smithfield Foods was purchased in 2013 by what is now WH Group, a group of investors that also own large meat production facilities in China.  

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