(Watsonville, CA) The VPS Companies, Inc. announced today that Byron Johnson has joined the firm as President and Chief Executive Officer.
Byron Johnson has a 34-year career in the food industry. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of Supply Chain for Dean Pickle and Specialty Products Company. He joined that firm as Vice President of Logistics in 2000. Prior to that time Johnson was Senior Vice President of Operations with Dean Foods Vegetable Company and served in that position since Dean's acquisition of Birds Eye. Prior to the consolidation into Dean Foods Vegetable Co., he was President of Richard A. Shaw, Inc., Business Unit of Dean Foods in Watsonville, California. Before joining Dean in 1990, Johnson was employed by Pillsbury/Green Giant in various key management positions.
Based in Watsonville, California, VPS Companies, Inc is the 53 year-old parent company of Valley Packing Service, Inn Foods, Inc., U.S. Food Service, Central Cold Storage, National Custom Packing and Food Service Systems. Its international operations include frozen food distribution, brokering, warehousing, custom blending, product repacking, custom co-packing, private label packing, product development and marketing in Retail, Foodservice and Industrial Markets.
As CEO of VPS Companies, Johnson will work to increase sales of frozen food products through enhanced teamwork between VPS subsidiaries. "VPS Companies will grow faster when we can coordinate the specific capabilities of our individual subsidiaries so that our marketing efforts are more effective and productive," Johnson said. "The company has earned a reputation as an innovator in custom co-packing and in meeting the unique needs of individual customers, whether that has meant developing new products, packaging technology, the investment in new equipment for blending and packaging products, providing warehousing and transportation services or creating custom distribution programs that meet the unique needs of a customer. We want to merchandise all of those capabilities. Our main emphasis will continue to be customer satisfaction and long term customer relationships."
The VPS Companies' subsidiaries are involved in frozen food distribution, brokering, purchasing, selling, warehousing, freezing, co-packing, assembly and transportation. They develop products and services that help their customers meet their business objectives. The VPS Companies' business objective is to maintain its leadership position in the frozen food industry.
The VPS Companies' international scope includes sourcing and sales in the Pacific Rim nations, Europe, Central and South America and Canada. Quality driven, state of the art facilities are located in Castroville, California; Harlingen, Texas and Leon, Mexico.