The Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA) today announced that its Dairy and Beverage Councils will hold a joint program for the 2018 FPSA Annual Conference taking place March 21-23 at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, Arizona. This program will include breakout sessions featuring two excellent speakers who will address two critical topics resonating in today’s food and beverage industry.
Diane Wolf, former Vice President of Operations at Kraft Foods will address dealing with the shortage in talent in operations today in the food and beverage industry. With an extensive background in food and beverage operations and engineering, Diane has a keen understanding of the importance of personnel and the impact that shortages play in this industry. During this breakout session, Diane will discuss this issue in depth and offer solutions that food and beverage processors are employing to keep production going.
Joining Diane on the program is Greg Steltenpohl, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Califia Farms who will discuss innovation in the dairy and beverage market and the need to keep up with ever changing consumer demands. Greg co-founded Odwalla in 1980 and built it into a wildly successful juice company before selling to Coca-Cola in 2001. Now with Califia, Greg seeks to bring innovation to the dairy case with their wide range of nut and plant based milks, producing 1 million servings per day and growing. During this exciting breakout session, Greg will share with Conference attendees the importance of staying ahead of the curve and where he sees this fast-growing market in the near future.
“We are very excited about this joint program as it brings together two incredible speakers addressing critical topics in today’s industry,” said Bert Wesley, Chair of the FPSA Beverage Council and Senior Principal of Woodard & Curran. “Over her career, Diane has worked on all aspects of food and beverage operations and as such she understands and is uniquely positioned to speak about our aging workforce. Staffing is an issue for all of us including suppliers and our customers. We look forward to hearing Diane discuss what successful processors and beverage manufacturers are doing to find a solution.”
“We are honored to have two speakers of such a high caliber at this year’s Conference,” said Bill McPhail, Chair of the FPSA Dairy Council and President of MAX Engineering. “Greg Steltenpohl was honored this fall at Goldman Sachs’ Builders + Innovators Summit as one of the Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2017. Under his guidance, Califia Farms is one of the fastest growing natural beverage companies in the US and has made a significant mark at the retail level. Its award-winning beverages and disruptive packaging have made it the number one natural nut milk brand (refrigerated), the number one natural cold brew coffee brand (refrigerated/RTD) and the fastest-growing non-dairy creamer brand. This is a session that none of our members will want to miss.”
Registration for the 2018 FPSA Annual Conference is now open on-line at www.fpsa.org. The early-bird registration rate of $850 for FPSA members is effect until February 22nd. For more information on the FPSA Annual Conference, contact Dolores Alonso at (703) 663-1226 or dalonso@fpsa.org.
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The Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA) is a global trade association serving suppliers in the food and beverage industries. The Association's programs and services support member’s success by providing assistance in marketing their products and services, overall improvement in key business practices and many opportunities to network among industry colleagues. Programs and services to achieve these objectives include PROCESS EXPO (industry leading trade show), electronic media marketing, education, market intelligence, research, and advocation of critical industry issues such as food safety, sanitary design of equipment, and global trade.
FPSA members are organized in vertical industry councils which focus on specific needs and concerns that are unique to each industry sector. FPSA councils currently represent the Bakery, Beverage, Dairy, Prepared Foods and Meat sectors.