Deli snacks essay sample

Overview
ALL STAR Foods International (ALL STAR) is a large international manufacturer of snack foods, including potato chips, nacho chips, and pretzels, that are sold under the Tasty Crunch brand name. ALL STAR has operations throughout North America and Europe, and its international head office is located in Chicago. Consolidated net sales are in excess of US$1 billion, and ALL STAR’s shares are traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange. In Canada, ALL STAR operates through its wholly owned subsidiary, ALL STAR Foods Canada Ltd. (ASFC or the Company). ASFC has facilities located across Canada and sales in excess of CDN$150 million. Its head office is located in Toronto, Ontario. Over the past several years, ASFC’s sales have grown slowly and its financial results have been relatively weak. Consequently, ALL STAR initiated a major restructuring of ASFC at the beginning of 2010. This resulted in the replacement of almost all the senior management staff. Bruce Tate, a senior manager in ALL STAR’s operations in the United States, was appointed President of ASFC. His mandate was to double the size of the Canadian operations and to generate a pre-tax profit margin in excess of 10% within a period of five years. Southeastern US Region.

Bruce has a strong background in sales at ALL STAR and a reputation for driving top-line results. In his role as President, Bruce is accountable for ASFC’s total performance, including sales objectives and bottom-line results. He is a hands-on manager who likes to keep a direct reporting relationship between himself and each facet of ASFC’s operations. As a result, he removed the positions of CFO, COO, and EVP and had all six vice-presidents report directly to him. This reorganization did not result in substantial cost savings because the new vice- presidents were paid more than their predecessors. However, Bruce believed that flattening the organizational structure by reducing the number of layers between senior and operational management would improve communication channels. Anwar Ayoub, Vice-President, Manufacturing:

Anwar Ayoub was made Vice-President, Manufacturing during the restructuring efforts at ASFC in 2010. Anwar was transferred to ASFC based on his prior performance as the plant manager of ALL STAR’s manufacturing facility in Sweden, where his manufacturing initiatives resulted in substantial production cost savings. A professional engineer, Anwar has a keen sense of production efficiency and is very structured in his approach to problem solving. He is a strong advocate of accumulating and analyzing a wide array of statistics that he believes are key production performance indicators. Reporting to Anwar are ASFC’s four plant managers, each supervising the operations of one manufacturing facility. Each plant manager has between 12 and 18 years of service with ASFC and oversees the production supervisors and plant employees of the respective facility. Francesca Pirelli, Vice-President, Logistics:

Francesca Pirelli joined ASFC in mid-2010 following the sudden retirement of the former vice-president of logistics, a long-time employee of the Company and one of the few members of senior management that had not been replaced during ASFC’s restructuring. In trying to adapt to the changes being made, the Vice-President felt sufficiently uncomfortable that he decided to take early retirement. Prior to joining ASFC, Francesca was the director of traffic services at ALL STAR’s international office in Chicago. She holds a Bachelor of Management Sciences degree from a US university. In her role as Vice-President, Logistics, Francesca oversees all of ASFC’s distribution and warehousing activities. Reporting to Francesca are the fleet manager, the traffic manager and the warehouse managers. The fleet manager, an employee of ASFC for many years, is responsible for the Company’s tractor-trailers and delivery trucks. He ensures that the fleet of vehicles is properly maintained and oversees the long-haul drivers. When Francesca joined ASFC, she was informed that the warehouse managers overstocked their warehouses ALL STAR Foods Canada Ltd.

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in order to avoid shortages for which they were blamed. As part of her plan to minimize inventory, Francesca created the traffic manager position. This individual is responsible for planning the distribution routes so that the Company’s products are distributed to the warehouses efficiently and product shortages are minimized. Now, each of the 14 warehouse managers report directly to Francesca and she works closely with all of them on inventory control. Gerard Morrisseau, Vice-President, Marketing:

Gerard Morrisseau was hired as Vice-President, Marketing as part of ASFC’s restructuring efforts in 2010. Previously the director of marketing for the Canadian operations of a large multinational manufacturer of consumer products, he had also spent time working in the US and abroad. Gerard holds an MBA in Marketing from a Canadian university and has championed several highly innovative marketing programs successfully over the course of his career. There is a strong possibility that he will become the next vice-president of marketing at ALL STAR’s international head office in Chicago. In his role at ASFC, Gerard oversees the three product managers, all of whom have been at ASFC for less than five years. Gerard works closely with the product managers to develop promotional materials, advertising campaigns, and marketing strategies for the three product lines, keeping in mind the parameters established by ALL STAR to ensure relative consistency in product branding throughout the world.