Church Brothers Farms adds to sales team and promotes staff

Church Brothers Farms made additions to its sales team and promoted existing staff as part of a plan to grow the company’s retail and foodservice sales programs.

Bob Licker joined Church Brothers Farms to support foodservice sales with more than 44 years’ experience in the industry. He was most recently at Mann Packing as the Northeast regional manager for foodservice. Prior to that, he was at US Foods as a specialist and then regional category manager for the Northeast region.

The company also added industry veterans, Andy Abbott and Shayne Gordon, as contract sales managers. Their focus is on managing the company’s broker network and building retail value added programs across the United States.

The company promoted Elia Lopez to planning and logistics manager for its San Luis plant in Mexico.  Lopez has been with Church Brothers Farms since 2002.  In her new role she will manage San Luis’s scheduling department and raw product availability to ensure efficiency between all locations and ensure an orderly flow of finished product from the San Luis facility.  

Dan Walker joined the company as sales support specialist. Walker has more than 19 years’ experience in finance and seven in the produce industry having worked for the Nunes Company in Walmart replenishment and at Sabor Farms focusing on crop production and forecasting. At Church Brothers Farms, Walker will focus on inbound logistics from the company’s Mexico facility to optimize customer service.

“These important organizational changes will provide a foundation for continued growth of our Mexican operations and support our goal to expand our retail footprint,” said Rick Russo, senior vice president of sales and marketing.  “We look forward to having industry professionals join us who can bring their expertise and knowledge to our team.”