Eric Esch Email & Phone Number

Gonzales, Texas, US

• Hickory Foods manufactures and markets frozen Beef, Turkey and Veggie burgers. Its flagship brand, BUBBA burger is the leading frozen burger brand in the United States. Hired as Vice President of Sales reporting to CEO.
• Responsible for Sales, Marketing and New Product Development for Hickory Foods’ frozen food companies, including: Bubba burger, Flanders Provisions, Red Hat Ranch and Private Label product offerings.
• Hickory Foods dominates both the premium tier of the U.S. frozen burger retail category with Bubba burger, the #1 selling frozen burger brand in the U.S. commanding 50+% branded category share and holding premium price.
• Flanders is the leading value frozen burger brand and overall #3 brand nationally.
• Red Hat Ranch is a quality mid-tier offering and among the fastest-growing frozen burger brands in the United States.

• Sauer Brands manufactures Condiments (Duke’s), Salsa (Mateo’s), Spices and Flavorings (Kernel Season’s, The Spice Hunter, Sauer’s) and markets through a wide variety of channels, including: Away-From-Home/Foodservice.
• Grew overall Branded business by 22.1% while holding Private Label steady, resulting in a more profitable product mix and +11.6% total sales growth.
• By channel, AFH/Export expanded Brand sales by +31.5% through reorganization of sales team (AFH 2.0) aggressively pursuing Branded Operator business vs. previous strategy of developing distributor-owned brands.
• Retail (Food, Drug, Mass, Club, E-Commerce) drove +18.0% Retail Brand sales growth through focus on customer segmentation strategy (P-L-A-N: Partner, Lead, Acquire, Neutral) and relentless pursuit of KPIs in Core.

Sales, marketing and P&L responsibility for Smithfield's Cumberland Gap brand of smoked meats. Grew brand volume in new trade channels within Cumberland Gap core geography, Mass +49% and Military +100%. Drove average of +17% volume increases at targeted conventional retail accounts outside of Cumberland Gap core geography.

Grew overall brand portfolio dollar sales by 13% for 52 weeks ended April 2011. Portfolio included the following brands: Smithfield (a leader in Smoked Ham, Bacon and Fresh Value-Added Pork), Gwaltney (holding top 3 national positions in Bacon, Bologna and Hot Dogs) as well as stable of regional brands – Cumberland Gap, Esskay, Lykes, Sunnyland and.

US

Delivered 67% sales volume growth over 3.5 years, primarily through strategic capital investment and increased national retail penetration.Managed divisional P&L, exceeding profit targets by 7-9% for 3 consecutive years.Managed demand forecasting (MRPII) and Sales and Operations planning (S&OP) process with manufacturing facilities, decreasing forecasting.

Mba, Marketing

Mba, Marketing

Bba, Management Information Systems