Staffing

Focus Brands shakes up leadership team

April 20, 2021

Focus Brands — the parent company of Auntie Anne's, Carvel, Cinnabon, Jamba, Moe's Southwest Grill, McAlister's Deli and Schlotzsky's — has added three executives to its leadership team, including:

• Guillermo Cremer, chief people officer.
• Joe Guith, category president of Restaurant Brands.
• Will Costello, vice president of Procurement in the supply chain division.

"We are thrilled to have Guillermo and Joe at the helm of two critical areas of our organization," said Jim Holthouser, CEO for Focus Brands. "As our company grows, we will continue to put an intense emphasis on our people and culture, while providing best-in-class service to our brand franchisees and suppliers to drive our company forward."

Cremer joins Focus Brands most recently from Kimberly Clark in Atlanta, where he spent seven years supporting different business units, including more recently the professional division. In this role, he delivered strategic HR leadership, led development programs for employees and participated in an HR transformation to support the changing needs of the organization. While there, he also oversaw the HR function for the Latin America business unit.

Guith, who has been the president of McAlister's Deli since 2018 and served in that role at Cinnabon from 2015 to 2018, has also served in general management and strategic roles with The Coca-Cola Company and Yum Brands.

Prior to joining Focus Brands, Costello served as president and CEO for Executive Supply Chain Business Consulting, where he provided supply chain, business development, commodity risk management and complex negotiation contracting strategies to restaurant operating companies, distributors and redistributors, as well as foodservice manufacturers. Additional leadership roles in the supply chain industry include IPC, the independent SUBWAY franchisee-owned and operated purchasing cooperative; International Dairy Queen; and RSI, the Burger King supply chain cooperative.

"Procurement is perhaps one of the most critical functions in the restaurant industry and we are excited to welcome Will to the team to strengthen our supply chain for our brand franchisees and company," Anissa Mandell, senior vice president of Focus Brands Supply Chain, said in the release. "Will's thought leadership and experience will be instrumental in helping us architect our new category management model as we create a best-in-class supply chain organization."

Atlanta-based Focus Brands is the franchisor and operator of more than 6,000 restaurants in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and over 50 foreign countries.