UFPC Names Pete Suerken Vice President of Commodity Risk Management
Louisville, Ky. — Sept. 9, 2004 —
Daniel E. Woodside, President and Chief Executive Officer of Unified Foodservice Purchasing Co-op®, LLC (UFPC®), announced the formation of a new department dedicated to commodities management. Newly appointed Vice President Pete Suerken will lead the Commodity Risk Management Department. Pete brings to UFPC significant experience in hedge strategies and grain commodities trading.
Pete comes to UFPC from Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a world leader in agricultural processing, where he served as Director of Feed Grain Merchandising. In that position, Pete was actively involved in the purchase and sale of over $750 million in feed grain annually and administered hedge strategies for over 300 million bushels of grain each year.
“2004’s volatile commodities market has had a significant impact on both the cost and availability of the products our concept co-op members need,” explained Dan Woodside. “Pete has been given the task of improving commodity synergies through improved communication and development of stronger risk management strategies.”
Pete will be working at UFPC’s main office, in Louisville, Ky. He will serve the interests of the five Yum! Brands concepts that UFPC serves: A&W, KFC, Long John Silver’s, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants. He will advise the leaders of each strategic sourcing area and coordinate commodity data among the areas.
Pete has a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Ohio State University, where he graduated in 1995.
UFPC is a limited liability corporation, which umbrellas five national purchasing cooperatives. They include the A&W National Purchasing Co-op, Inc., KFC National Purchasing Co-op, Inc., Long John Silver’s National Purchasing Co-op, Inc., Pizza Hut National Purchasing Co-op, Inc., and Taco Bell National Purchasing Co-op, Inc. With hub offices located in Dallas, Texas, Irvine, Calif., and Louisville, Ky., UFPC has two additional offices located in Pensacola, Fla., and Wichita, Kan.
# # #