Dive Brief:
- Utz Brands named Satyaki Lodh SVP and CIO Monday, rounding out its revamped C-suite as the company expands nationwide.
- Lodh joins Utz this week from his recent post as CIO of Borden Dairy. He has decades of food and beverage industry experience to lead Utz's IT. Lodh will report to EVP and CFO Ajay Kataria, and replaces CIO Steve Toth, who leaves after seven years.
- After going public in 2020, Utz appointed a number of C-suite executives, including Kataria, Food Dive reported. The company also created the COO position and named executives to lead people, growth and sales.
Insight:
Since Utz went public it has been eating up companies to expand its snack portfolio and national footprint. On Monday, Utz completed the acquisition of two, third-party direct store delivery distributors (DSD). The deals add 125 DSD routes in the New York City area to feed its salty snack market share.
Utz, based in Hanover, Pennsylvania, is growing nationwide, paying $41 million last year for Festida Foods, which is popular in the Midwest.
As CIO, Lodh will build out Utz's infrastructure, support brand expansion and provide insights to drive profitable growth, Kevin Brick, spokesperson, Utz Brands, told CIO Dive in an email.
With each acquisition, Utz must absorb the target's technology and processes, requiring portfolio consolidation and process management.
Last April, Utz completed a multiyear implementation of a new enterprise resource planning system, replacing outdated operating and financial systems.
Its ERP, which includes a new trade management system, augments process and trade management improvements underway, CEO Dylan Lissette said in a November earnings call, according to a Motley Fool transcript.
ERP modernization can take years, hindered by budget constraints and legacy technology. But technology executives look to modernized ERPs to smooth supply chain hiccups and help avoid business disruption.
