Simply Good Foods names Mike Clawson chief customer officer

Mike Clawson comes to the company from a leadership stint at Del Monte Foods.

Courtesy of Simply Good Foods

The Simply Good Foods Co., a company that owns a number of branded nutritional foods and snacks, has announced Mike Clawson as its new chief customer officer, effective October 14.

The company reports a cornerstone of its strategic growth plan is an enhanced selling model and approach, centered on building multi-year growth plans for key customers with a focus on increasing shelf space, leveraging strategic consumer and category insights, driving innovation in key growth spaces, leveraging advanced analytics, and driving growth in an omni-channel world.

Clawson reportedly is a CPG veteran with 25 years of experience leading teams and building capabilities across all the functions and capabilities critical to making the company’s new model a success, including P&L leadership, sales, brand marketing, innovation, category management, shopper marketing, strategy, and supply chain. Throughout his career, Clawson has been successful in building retail partnerships and delivering strong business results. Reporting directly to Geoff Tanner (president and CEO), Clawson is said to be well-positioned to lead the sales organization and to partner closely with the general managers of the Quest, Atkins, and OWYN brands to develop and execute multi-year growth plans with our customers and expand upon the Company’s leadership position within the nutritional snacking category.

Clawson served most recently as the general manager of the nearly $1 billion Meals Business Unit at Del Monte Foods. where he had full P&L responsibility across multiple business segments, including Marketing, Operations, and Finance. Prior to his current role, Clawson led Sales for the $1.7 billion U.S. Retail business and led the Walmart Inc. sales customer team and the international business where he led the successful global sales organizational transformation.

Clawson will succeed Simply Good Foods’ current CCO, Jill Short, who has announced her departure after 17 years with the company. Short will remain with the company and assist with the transition of her responsibilities for a brief period.

CEO Tanner says, “Mike is a strategic thinker with a passion for delivering results and building sustainable organizational capability. Mike knows how to harness the full suite of capabilities to build and deliver multi-year growth plans with retailers. Mike is well-known to me, members of my leadership team, and our Board of Directors. He knows and has experience with the new Simply Good playbook we are executing, and I am confident he will hit the ground running. I also want to thank Jill for her many contributions to Simply Good Foods. Her leadership has been instrumental in getting us to where we are today. I am excited about the future of the nutritional snacking category as we believe it will continue to grow driven by volume and outpace center-of-store packaged foods. The integration of the OWYN business is progressing well, the Company is tracking to its full-year fiscal 2024 financial objectives and we are well positioned to win over the long-term.”

This webinar will examine variables factoring into nutritionally improved candy sales, including ingredients, label claims, and alternative sugars. Better-for-you options remain top of mind for consumers who are searching for indulgences, but in a healthier format.