St. Augustine, FL (October 5, 2010) – Greg Leonard, Senior Vice President of Natural Food Sales for Tree of Life announced today that Rick Werner has been appointed the Company’s Vice President of Business Development for the Natural Channel, effective October 11, 2010. Werner will be based at the headquarters of Tree of Life’s parent company, KeHE Distributors, in Romeoville, Illinois.
Rick Werner brings an extensive background in the Natural Products Industry to his new position at Tree of Life having enjoyed a successful career on both the retail and supply sides of the business. From 1999-2007 Rick was a member of the Wild Oats corporate team first as a Category Manager and later as Director of Dry Grocery. While at Wild Oats, Rick led Dry Grocery to double digit comparable store sales growth, far outpacing total company growth.
Most recently Werner led the successful launch of the Goodbelly brand in Canada selecting brokers, developing budgets and defining the strategy with the result of achieving distribution in over 45% of Canada’s “A” accounts within three months.
As Vice President of Business Development for the Natural Channel at Tree of Life, Rick will be responsible for building retail relationships and business partnerships with natural food store operators across the U.S.
Source: KeHE Distributors