Kraft Heinz has replaced the president of its business in North America with a former Kellanova executive joining his former boss at the US group.
Nico Amaya will take on the role next week, succeeding Pedro Navio. Across two decades, Amaya worked for the then Kellogg Co. and Kellanova, where he worked with Kraft Heinz CEO Steve Cahillane for eight years.
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Cahillane, the former Kellogg and Kellanova CEO, joined Kraft Heinz as chief executive last month.
“Nico is a proven leader with deep experience driving growth and transformation in complex, competitive markets,” Cahillane said.
“As we continue to transform and build momentum across our North America business, Nico brings the right combination of commercial rigor, operational excellence, and people leadership to accelerate that progress. I worked closely with Nico for many years at Kellogg and Kellanova, and I have great confidence in his ability to lead our North America business as we focus on returning Kraft Heinz to profitable growth.”
Last week, Cahillane said Kraft Heinz had put its idea to split in two on hold, with the food-and-drinks group deciding instead to focus on getting the business growing again.
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By GlobalDataHe also set out plans to invest $600m “across marketing, sales and R&D as well as product superiority and select pricing”.
Cahillane had led the 2023 split of Kellogg into Kellanova and WK Kellogg Co., two businesses that were subsequently acquired by Mars and Ferrero.
In September, Kraft Heinz announced plans to create two separate businesses with “greater strategic and operational focus” to, the company said, “drive better performance”.
However, Cahillane said last week the company would “pause” the plans.
“Since joining the company, I have seen that the opportunity is larger than expected and that many of our challenges are fixable and within our control.
“My number one priority is returning the business to profitable growth, which will require ensuring all resources are fully focused on the execution of our operating plan. As a result, we believe it is prudent to pause work related to the separation and we will no longer incur related dis-synergies this year.”
Cahillane’s comments came alongside the publication of Kraft Heinz’s annual financial results, which included lower sales, a decline in gross profits and a near $6bn net loss amid more than $6bn in goodwill impairment losses.
Fourth-quarter sales were also down, though the company booked an operating profit and a net profit, although the latter was down on the final three months of 2024.
