Freshpet’s head of manufacturing to retire in 2022

Freshpet Inc. Executive Vice President of Manufacturing & Supply Chain Stephen Weise is retiring at the end of 2022, the company announced July 19.

Weise will continue to lead incremental production capacity planning and certain other manufacturing responsibilities through the end of 2021 and then focus exclusively on incremental capacity planning during 2022 until his retirement, the Seacaucus pet food company said.

Vice President of Supply Chain Chris Taranto will assume responsibility for the company’s logistics operation, and Vice President of Manufacturing Ricardo Moreno will maintain oversight of the manufacturing operations at its Freshpet Kitchens.

Both men will report directly to Chief Executive Officer Billy Cyr, who remarked on Weise’s retirement that “no single person could replace what Steve has done for Freshpet.”

“During his tenure, we have grown our net sales by almost four times and by the time he fully retires next year we will have installed more than $1 billion in net sales capacity. We are incredibly grateful to him for his leadership and willingness to help our organization execute an orderly transition during this important time in our growth cycle,” Cyr said.

Weise took the role at Freshpet in 2015 after several decades working in supply chain and manufacturing for retailers that included Kraft Foods, Chock Full ‘o Nuts, and Manischewitz.

Of Moreno and Taranto, he said, “We are fortunate to have built a deep bench that has the capability to step into these important roles while Steve will retain responsibility for long-term capacity planning until his full retirement at the end of next year 2022.”