Barilla hires Terry’s man for top European role

Terry’s Suchard marketing controller Dean Sanders has left the company to join leading European pasta maker Barilla as its European marketing director.

Sanders will report to Barilla’s vice president for Europe John Karakadas in the newly created post. He will be responsible for all European countries except Italy, although he will be based at Barilla’s headquarters in Parma.

Barilla is a family-owned pasta and biscuit manufacturer and has the leading share of the Italian pasta market. The company brought in Edwin Artzt, former chairman and chief executive of Procter & Gamble, early last year and gave him full powers to restructure the group, cut costs, reposition its products and expand overseas.

Artzt is helping the company introduce every day low pricing in Italy, following in the footsteps of P&G which launched EDLP in the US in 1991 and in the UK this year.

While Sanders was at Terry’s Suchard, he reported to general manager Alex von Behr and worked on brands such as Terry’s Chocolate Orange and Terry’s All Gold.