Bell Flavors & Fragrances Announces Strategic Promotions
Bell Flavors & Fragrances, Inc. has announced strategic promotions within the company’s Flavor and Fragrance divisions as well as Internal Operations and Finance departments at its headquarters in Northbrook, Ill.
FLAVOR DIVISION
Benjamin Stanley, CRC has been promoted to senior corporate chef and manager of sweet applications. Stanley will continue managing the Sweet Applications Team, including internal and customer projects. He will continue ideating around and promoting innovative flavors for Bell’s Spark Trends and other programs.
Since joining Bell 3.5 years ago, Stanley has played a critical role on the Culinary Applications Team, in which he demonstrates a strong commitment to widening Bell’s flavor market share and boosting Bell’s visibility within the confection and sweet goods industry. Stanley recently graduated with a master of science degree in Innovation from Northeastern University’s D-Amore-McKim School of Business.
Andrew Petrou has been promoted to flavorist II. Petrou will continue to ideate around and develop cutting-edge savory flavors for use in a variety of food and beverage applications.
Petrou is a key member of Bell’s Savory team, supporting the Bell Technology & Innovation Center and successfully developing new savory flavors. He was recently accepted into the Society of Flavor Chemists with full certification status and is one of the few certified members specializing in Savory Flavor Chemistry. Petrou holds a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Cody Heinz has been promoted to director of sales. Heinz will implement and manage Bell’s sales metrics tool. He will engage in a variety of initiatives to support sales goals and equip the sales team with transparent, effective and efficient sales management data and resource planning.
Heinz recently celebrated ten years with Bell Flavors & Fragrances, holding roles as an Inside sales representative and national account manager. Heinz earned a master of business administration in business administration, management & operations from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and a bachelor of science degree in kinesiology & health from Miami University of Ohio.
FRAGRANCE DIVISION
Kenny Enriquez has been promoted to director of sales. Enriquez will be responsible for implementing and managing key sales metrics. He will support the sales team with utilizing transparent, effective and efficient sales management data and engaging in resource planning and tracking profitability.
Prior to this role, Enriquez was a sales key account manager and account executive at Bell. Enriquez holds a master of business administration from Lewis University and a bachelor of arts in economics from the University of Kansas.
Ted Heinz has been promoted to fragrance business development manager. Heinz will be a key player in Bell’s business development initiative to continue strengthening the Fragrance division.
Heinz joined Bell in 2005 as an analytical department analyst, transitioning into internal sales, then his former position as an account manager. Heinz holds a bachelor of science in communication and business from St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis.
OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT
Olu Famoyin has been promoted to director of manufacturing. Famoyin will lead the Manufacturing, Shipping and Maintenance teams, propelling Bell’s commitment to optimizing productivity, maximizing efficiency, and ensuring full compliance with processes, quality standards and safety policies.
Famoyin joined the Bell Flavors & Fragrances family as an associate director of operations where he worked on manufacturing improvements and adoption of a new ERP system. Famoyin played a pivotal role in implementing shipping improvements to optimize day-to-day operations. Famoyin earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Rutgers University and has extensive Flavor industry experience leading multiple sites.
FINANCE DEPARTMENT
Theresa Link has been promoted to controller. Link will be responsible for general accounting, payroll, cash management, internal controls and financial closes for Bell’s Northbrook and New York locations. She will also ensure accurate financial statements and analyses to support the business.
Link has been a dedicated member of the Bell family for 17 years. Prior to this role, Link was Bell’s Director of Cost Accounting. She possesses expertise in inventory costing, cash management and general ledger, and serves as a subject matter expert for Bell’s ERP system. Link earned her master of business administration in accounting and finance from Elmhurst University.
Brian Enriquez has been promoted to director of cost accounting. In this new role, Enriquez will continue implementing a new product system, working closely with Bell’s Operations Team to evaluate manufacturing labor and overhead rates and tracking incurred costs from raw materials to finished products.
Prior to this role, Enriquez was Bell’s senior manager of finance and pricing. Enriquez earned his bachelor’s degree in financial planning and master’s degree in finance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
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Publix Launches Spring Feeding More Together Campaign
Publix, its customers and associates are working together to help alleviate hunger throughout the company’s operating area. Through its 2023 Feeding More Together spring campaign, Publix is helping nourish communities by providing nonperishable food and fresh produce to local Feeding America member food banks and pantries.
Associates and customers may donate any dollar amount at the register (up to $1,000) to help support people experiencing food insecurity. Customer donations provide nonperishable food items needed most by local food banks and pantries to serve their clients.
As part of this effort, Publix is donating $5 million in fresh produce this spring to help alleviate hunger in the company’s operating area. These donations of fresh fruits and vegetables will help provide much-needed nourishment to people facing hunger.
“We are proud to continue our founder George Jenkins’ legacy of giving back to our communities,” said Publix CEO Todd Jones. “Through our Feeding More Together campaign, donations will be given to local food banks to help alleviate hunger for our neighbors experiencing food insecurity.”
Publix, the largest employee-owned company in the United States with more than 240,000 associates, currently operates 1,327 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. For 25 consecutive years, the company has been recognized by Fortune as a great place to work. In addition, Publix’s dedication to superior quality and customer service is recognized among the top in the grocery business.
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Snack Brands Capitalize on Marketing in Week Before Super Bowl
Budweiser may not have been a big presence at the Super Bowl, but its products ranked high with consumers among snack brands the week of the big game.
Snack brands that leveraged the excitement and anticipation leading up to the Super Bowl can tap into a captive audience of millions and create campaigns that leave a lasting impact on brand awareness and loyalty.
Veryfi, using artificial intelligence technology to instantly transform documents into structured data that consumer packaged goods companies use for cross-basket insights, analyzed supermarket shopper receipts in the week leading up to the Super Bowl.
Veryfi Insights used shopper receipt data to identify factors that contribute to the success of snack brands during the Super Bowl, and what strategies brands can employ to improve their sales in the future.
“Veryfi’s analysis of supermarket shopper receipts in the week leading up to the Super Bowl is a powerful demonstration of the potential of cross-basket analytics in understanding consumer behavior,” said Ernest Semerda, co-founder and CEO, Veryfi. “By launching campaigns in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, brands can trigger a jump in sales while connecting more closely with customers and the Super Bowl audience.”
The ability of AI to instantly transform receipts into structured data provides insights that were previously impossible to obtain. By analyzing supermarket shopper receipts, Veryfi was able to identify shifting preferences in consumer behavior in the lead-up to the Super Bowl, and this information can be used by brands to inform their loyalty marketing and advertising strategies.
Anheuser-Busch InBev dominated the beer category during the Super Bowl – with Bud Light, Budweiser, and Michelob Ultra all ranking in the top three in sales for the week leading up to the event. Coca-Cola’s success in the soft drink category is also notable, with the brand outperforming Pepsi by a significant margin. However, it’s worth noting the large increase in sales for Pepsi Zero in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, which suggests that the brand’s advertising campaign preceding the big game may have paid off.
In the chip category, PepsiCo’s Lays and Doritos brands emerged as clear leaders, indicating the popularity of salty snacks during the Super Bowl. Contrary to some predictions, despite more affordable avocado prices, a lack of increase in avocado or guacamole sales versus the preceding year’s worth of sales data may suggest that customers were not motivated by any price changes.
Hellman’s mayonnaise is the leading U.S. mayo product. However, the substantially greater popularity of Hellman’s mayonnaise over Heinz ketchup and French’s mustard is a surprising finding, as ketchup and mustard are often considered staple condiments for Super Bowl parties.
“Through Veryfi Insights, we’ve proven that consumer shopping receipts deliver cross-basket insights, greater personalization, and better customer loyalty to CPG brands and the marketing agencies supporting them,” continued Semerda. “Building on our momentum gained in 2022 with loyalty marketing organizations, we see increasing numbers of CPG brands and agencies that are using receipts to drive customer loyalty and mitigate any impacts caused by economic uncertainty.”
Unlike most consumer surveys that solicit feedback from a few thousand people, Veryfi draws its insights on data collected in the aggregate from millions of opt-in receipts extracted by the Veryfi OCR API Platform. In this way, Veryfi’s technology offers an unprecedented real-world view into shopping trends. Veryfi customers in the CPG industry can gain insights into consumer behavior through analysis of “cross-basket” purchases, that is, by examining all line items on a purchase receipt.
Veryfi provides the only mobile receipt capture technology that includes AI computer vision for receipt detection and image enhancement, as well as a long receipt capture mode. It helps transform unstructured documents into structured data – tapping into data that was previously unavailable for analysis.
By eliminating manual data entry, Veryfi enables organizations to accurately capture, extract and transform documents such as receipts, invoices, purchase orders, checks, credit cards, and W-9 forms into structured data, at scale. Veryfi uses advanced AI/ML technology, trained by hundreds of millions of documents over the past five years, to extract data and transform it into a structured format for 85 currencies, 39 languages, and over 110 defined fields such as vendor, total, bill to/ship to, purchase order and invoice numbers, any line item (product name, SKU, description), taxes, and more, which can then be accessed for a wide variety of business applications.
For more on The Super Bowl Snack Battle, go to https://www.veryfi.com/insights/the-super-bowl-snack-battle-which-brands-came-out-on-top-and-why/.
Go here to learn more about turning receipts into valuable consumer insights: info.veryfi.com/value-of-receipt-infographic.
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