DURBAN – American beverages company PepsiCo on Tuesday announced that it has appointed Pioneer Foods boss Tertius Carstens as its sub-Saharan Africa chief executive.
The group said Carstens will assume the position immediately.
The appointment comes after the Competition Tribunal gave the US giant a go-ahead to acquire the South African packaged goods company for $1.7 billion (R31bn) in March.
PepsiCo offered to pay R110 a share representing a 56 percent premium to the 30-day volume weighted average price prior to July last year in one of the grou’s biggest investments outside of the US.
Pioneer Foods owns Weet-Bix, Liqui Fruit, Ceres, Sasko, Safari, Spekko and White Star also delisted from the JSE on March 24.
Eugene Willemsen, chief executive of PepsiCo Africa, Middle East and South Asia (Amesa), said Carstens was qualified and experienced to lead the region as he had a strong track record in the fast-moving consumer goods sector and African markets.
“His appointment is a major step in enabling the integration of Pioneer Foods into PepsiCo and the successful execution of our Sub-Saharan African growth strategy,” Willemsen said.
The group said Carstens would join the PepsiCo Amesa executive committee.
Carstens said the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic had made clear, and accelerated the need for decisive and agile decision making, responsiveness and coordination,
“We believe this will be best served by a single leadership team across the Pioneer Foods, Simba and SSA Food and Beverage businesses, and together we are looking forward to overcoming the immediate challenges and positioning the business for growth,” Carstens said.
PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of foods and beverages like Simba, Lays, Doritos, NikNaks, and Pepsi-Cola.
The group said the region would be headquartered in South Africa.