As cranberry harvest season begins, Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. has named two new C-suite officers, signaling a deliberate push to strengthen operations and long-term strategy under CEO Abigail Buckwalter, who took the helm of the cooperative earlier this year.
Kevin Zidron joins as Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer, and Brad Hartzell steps in as Chief Supply Chain Officer, succeeding Earl Larson, who is retiring at the end of September after nearly 22 years with the cooperative.
The New Appointments
Zidron's mandate is broad: enterprise strategy, transformation, value capture, project management, and commercial strategy and insights. He brings deep food and beverage industry credentials, having held senior leadership roles at Nestlé Health Science, Vital Proteins, and Kraft Heinz, where he led enterprise strategy and commercial transformation across North American and global businesses.
Hartzell brings more than 25 years of experience in manufacturing, supply chain, and operational excellence within consumer products and ingredient businesses. His most recent role was Chief Operating Officer, Beauty & Body Solutions at KDC/ONE Development Corporation, and he previously served as COO at NovaTaste. He also spent 18 years at International Flavors & Fragrances, ultimately reaching Vice President, Operations, Flavors North America. Hartzell began his career in the U.S. Navy and holds an Executive MBA from INSEAD.
Why It Matters for Operators
For foodservice buyers and retail partners, C-suite stability and supply chain investment at a cooperative the size of Ocean Spray carries real implications. The cooperative's cranberry products appear in more than a thousand SKUs across more than 100 countries, meaning disruptions — or improvements — in supply chain performance ripple quickly through restaurant, hospitality, and retail channels. Hartzell's operational background in ingredient and consumer goods manufacturing suggests Ocean Spray is prioritizing throughput reliability and scalable sourcing, areas that directly affect procurement teams and beverage industry supply chain planners.
Buckwalter framed the appointments around speed and discipline. "Our focus now is on bringing those strengths together with greater clarity, pace and discipline to accelerate growth and unlock our full potential," she said. "Kevin and Brad bring the leadership and expertise to help us move faster, sharpen execution and deliver on our priorities."
Cooperative Context
Ocean Spray's structure as a farmer-owned agricultural cooperative — with roughly 700 family growers across the United States, Canada, and Chile — means executive decisions carry weight beyond typical CPG dynamics. Growth initiatives must ultimately serve grower economics, a consideration that shapes how strategy and supply chain leadership are built and measured. The dual hire, timed to the start of harvest, underscores that Buckwalter is moving quickly to put her leadership team in place before the cooperative's most operationally intensive period of the year.
For restaurant and hospitality operators tracking ingredient sourcing and beverage trends, Ocean Spray's leadership build-out is worth watching. A more disciplined supply chain and sharper commercial strategy could translate into stronger product availability, more consistent pricing, and potentially new product development pipelines aligned with foodservice and on-premise beverage trends. Coverage of cooperative and supplier executive movements — and what they signal for the broader food and beverage supply chain — remains a continuing focus at Food & Beverage Magazine.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
