Lactalis Canada announces new sales leadership appointments

Lactalis Canada has made several new appointments to its customer sales leadership team.

According to a release from Lactalis Canada, the new appointments “follow an enhanced commercial structure focused on improving internal efficiencies and building stronger customer partnerships.”

“One of Lactalis Canada’s corporate goals is to be the easiest dairy company to do business with, and over the last 18 months, our team has been building an enhanced commercial structure to deliver just this,” says Tom Szostok, senior vice-president, sales at Lactalis Canada. “Together, with these new leaders, we look forward to continuing to further elevate our customer partnerships and experience.”

READ: Lactalis Canada appoints a new VP of sales

The new appointments are: 

Mark Kreckler, senior director, customer development—Sobeys. In this role, Kreckler will be responsible for overseeing enterprise-wide business development for Sobeys with the exception of Fluid Milk and Deli Cheese. Mark brings over 25 years of CPG sales experience to Lactalis Canada, most recently serving as sales director at Kimberly Clark where he led the sales team in Australia and was responsible for all customer teams, national field sales, shopper marketing and vendor replenishment planning.

Kate Simmie, director, customer development—Walmart. Simmie will oversee enterprise-wide business development for Walmart with the exception of Fluid Milk and Deli Cheese. Kate’s key priority will be to leverage the full scale of the team at Lactalis Canada to drive mutual growth as a value-added strategic partner for Walmart.

Kelly Backer, senior director, customer development—Costco & All West Grocery Retail. Backer will be responsible for leading enterprise-wide business development for Costco and all West Grocery Retail for all business segments with the exception of Fluid Milk and Deli Cheese. Kelly brings over 20 years of sales and marketing experience to Lactalis Canada from various CPG organizations, most recently at Wonderbrands where she served as vice-president, marketing and category development. 

Paul Cuaso, director, corporate marketing. Cuaso will be responsible for driving alignment, consistency and excellence through all marketing processes and projects, and harnessing strategic and developmental insights to drive marketing best practices and tools across Lactalis Canada. Paul is an accomplished marketing professional with over 20 years of CPG experience in Canada.