Case Studies
- Schulstad A/S, a leading Denmark commercial baking company sought to establish a presence in the United States in 1995. The full line baking company’s strategy was to introduce its pre-proofed Royal Danish Pastry line in the US. Briant Associates successfully conducted Schulstad’s search for its first US President.
- One of Europe’s largest baking companies, Lantmannen Unibake, acquired Schulstad A/S in 2005. Euro Bake, a St. Petersburg, FL based artisan bread bakery was acquired in 2008.
- First search executed for Schulstad/Unibake USA in 1995. Presently, Briant Associates continues to be a trusted search consultant for Lantmannen Unibake.
Results:
- 18 search projects successfully completed since 1995 including:
- President
- Vice President of Operations
- Director of Sales, Foodservice
- Director of Sales, In-store Bakery
- Director of Finance
- Director of Operations
- Plant Manager
- National Sales Manager
- Construction & Project Manager
- Regional Sales Manager (6)
- Quality Assurance Manager
- R&D Manager
- Schulstad/Unibake USA has grown from have zero business in the US, to $100 million plus in sales revenues, with a highly productive artisan bread bakery operation. Unibake USA has consistently met its operating profit objectives, while successfully expanding and growing its business in the foodservice and in-store bakery channels.
- The current US President was placed as the company’s Director of Sales in 2000. He was promoted to President in 2007.
- Privately-help OEM in the protein and foodservice industry. Bettcher Industries’ patented equipment has built a dominate position in protein industry, establishing a unique niche and highly profitable business model. The company’s employees and management team are dedicated, loyal and competent with an average tenure of approximately 15 years.
- Bettcher’s leadership team seeks to grow its already substantial international business and over time top-grade its executive management team and sales organization.
- Bettcher launched Gainco from ground-zero in 2000. Gainco started as a scale and weighing systems company specializing in the poultry industry. It had been unprofitable since its start-up and was lacking effective leadership.
- First search executed for Bettcher Industries in 2006. Presently, Briant Associates continues to be a trusted search consultant for Bettcher Industries.
Results:
- 36 search projects successfully completed since 2006 including:
- Vice President & General Manager – Gainco
- Managing Director – Bettcher GmbH
- Vice President Sales & Marketing – Bettcher Industries
- Vice President of Manufacturing Operations – Bettcher Industries
- Vice President Engineering & Quality – Bettcher Industries
- Director of Aftermarket & Service - Cantrell Gainco
- National Sales Manager - Bettcher/Exsurco
- International Sales Manager (6) - Bettcher GmbH
- Regional Sales Managers (10) - Bettcher Industries & Gainco
- Gainco sales revenues have more than quadrupled and the business is consistently profitable and a well-respected OEM in the poultry industry.
- Bettcher GmbH has substantially grown international business and has moved to a direct-sales moved in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and the UK most recently.
- Bettcher Industries has realized many consecutive years of record sales growth and profitability.
- In 2017, Bettcher Industries’ Board of Director sold a majority of its ESOP shares to a financial partner at a superior multiple.
- Our placed Managing Director at Bettcher Industries GmbH promoted to Global Vice President of Sales at Bettcher Industries and then to President of the Bettcher Industries and is currently the President of Cantrell Gainco
- Our placed Vice President Engineering & Quality at Bettcher Industries promoted to President of the Bettcher Industries.
- Our placed Vice President & General Manager at Gainco promoted to Global Vice President of Operations at Bettcher Industries and then promoted to President of Gainco.
- Our placed Regional Sales Manager, East at Gainco promoted to Director of Sales and the promoted to VP & General Manager at Gainco
- Our placed National Sales Manager at Bettcher/Exsurco promoted to National Key Account Sales Manager, promoted to Director of Sales Tissue Banks & Life Sciences, then promoted to Vice President Sales & Marketing.
- The Middleby Corporation launched its Processing & Packaging Division with its first acquisition in 2005. In 2012 it acquired the F. R. Drake Company, the global leader in automatic loading systems in the protein processing industry.
- Briant Associates was retained in 2012 to conduct F.R. Drake’s search for a new President, as its incumbent President had been named Executive Vice President of Middleby Processing & Packaging.
Results:
- 7 search projects successfully completed since 2012 including:
- President – F.R. Drake
- Executive VP of Operations – Bakery Group
- Vice President Sales & Service – MP Equipment
- Plant Manager – Bakery Group
- Director Engineering Manager – CV-Tek
- N. America Sales Manager – Spooner Vicars
- F.R. Drake’s sales revenues and profitability have continued to grow over the past six years meeting or exceeding objectives.
- The F.R. Drake President placed by Briant Associates was named President of Middleby’s Packaging Group in February 2018.
- The MP Equipment Vice President Sales & Service placed by Briant Associates was named President of MP Equipment two years after joining the company.
- Privately-held robotics packaging systems manufacturer and supplier. For more than 50 years, JLS Automation has enjoyed success in the packaging industry across various business segments. By the mid-2000’s its strategic plan was wholly focused-on solutions for food processing applications in primary and secondary packaging.
- JLS has been granted several patents in tooling for its primary packaging applications. By 2013, JLS had partnered with a various protein, bakery and cheese processors delivering unique solutions. However, substantial revenue and profitability growth required the top-grading of the sales and operations teams to take the performance of the business to the next level.
- First search executed for JLS Automation in 2013. Presently, Briant Associates continues to be a trusted search consultant for JLS Automation.
Results:
- 7 search projects successfully completed since 2013.
- Vice President of Operations
- Director of Engineering
- Director of Parts & Service
- Regional Sales Manager, East
- Regional Sales Manager, North Central
- Regional Sales Manager, South Central
- Regional Sales Manager, CA & Southwest
- Sales revenues have more than quadrupled since 2013 and profitability has increased significantly. The entire JLS team contributed to and achieved this growth.
- Vice President of Operations promoted to Vice President & General Manager. 5 of the 6 people hired continue to contribute to JLS Automation’s success today.
- In August of 2018, JLS has moved into a new facility to support and facilitate its continued growth.
- Record profitability past 3 consecutive years.
- Tomra acquired Odenberg, Best NV and Compac in 2011, 2012 and 2017 respectively, establishing Tomra as a global leader in food processing optical sorting solutions.
- In early 2014, Briant Associates was retained to conduct a search for the North American Sales Manager of Tomra’s Process Analytics (protein) Division. Over the past four years Briant Associates has successfully executed many search projects, both internationally and in the US, recruiting key personnel for Tomra’s commercial leadership team.
Results:
- 26 search projects completed since 2014 including:
- Director of Sales, Americas (Vice President level)
- Director of Service, Americas (Vice President level)
- Director of Solutions Engineering – Compac
- Regional Sales Manager, East
- Director Business Development – Collection Solutions
- Director of Operations – Collection Solutions
- Manager of Project Management, Americas
- N. America Sales Manager Metals
- Sales Manager, FR, BE, ES Process Analytics
- Sales Manager, DE, AU Process Analytics
- Area Sales Manager, Germany
- Area Sales Manager, Brazil
- Area Sales Manager Recycling, Mexico
- Area Sales Manager USA, (8)
- Tomra’s North America Division has realized substantial growth since the integration of its acquired entities.
- Tomra’s US service organization has realized a substantial turnaround to become a significant contributor to the Division’s profitability.
- Briant Associates successful partnership with Tomra’s Food Division has led to new partnerships with Tomra’s Collection Solution and Recycling Divisions.
- Over the past 60 years, Reiser has earned recognition for its highquality processing and packaging equipment across 12 brands, innovative engineering, and outstanding service and support.
- Briant Associates was first retained in 2018 to conduct a Territory Sales Manager search that Reiser was having difficulty completing. Successful completion of this project has evolved into a strong partnership with the company.
Results:
- 7 search projects completed since 2018 including:
- VP Regional Manager
- Director of National Accounts
- Director of Design Engineering
- Director of Design Engineering
- Customer Center Director
- Territory Sales Manager (3)
- Each of the 7 placed candidates continue to contribute to Reiser’s success today.
- Completed the Director of Design engineering search following many months of recruiting activity by Reiser’s skilled internal recruiting team. The hired candidate recruited and hired was a high-potential Engineer at a prominent food packing equipment manufacturer.