ConAgra Foods Inc., the packaged-food company that owns Chef Boyardee and Healthy Choice, is seeking a new chief executive officer after current leader Gary Rodkin announced plans to step down next May.
The board has established a search committee led by Richard Lenny, a ConAgra director who used to be chairman and CEO of Hershey Co., the Nebraska-based company said today in a statement.
ConAgra has been struggling to digest last year’s acquisition of Ralcorp Holdings Inc., which created a hybrid company with both brand-name foods and private-label products. Sluggish sales and ineffective promotions led its last quarterly earnings to miss analysts’ estimates in June. Timothy Chen, an analyst at Rhino Trading Partners in New York, said at the time that investors may push for a breakup if the company can’t demonstrate that it can better integrate Ralcorp with its existing brands.
“We are beginning my last fiscal year at ConAgra Foods by making good progress, and I have deep conviction that we are on the right path to deliver sustainable, profitable growth,” Rodkin said in today’s statement. The CEO took the reins at ConAgra in 2005.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
