Freshpet appoints Jay Dahlgren as EVP, manufacturing, technology, supply chain

Freshpet announced that Jay Dahlgren has been named Executive Vice President of Manufacturing, Technology and Supply Chain, effective Jan. 1, 2023. Jay brings over 30 years of pet food manufacturing, supply chain and quality experience to the Company from positions at the J.M. Smucker Company, Del Monte Foods, Meow Mix and Nestle Purina . This new appointment further supports Freshpet’s operational improvement plan to drive margin expansion, support long-term growth and improve profitability. The plan was developed by Freshpet’s leadership team in concert with its Board in August of 2022 and contains a roadmap to add manufacturing and supply chain expertise along with a strategy to improve quality, efficiency and add capacity. Over the last six months these changes have positioned Freshpet to improve productivity and profitability beginning in 2023 and grow into its manufacturing network to support robust consumer demand.As part of its plan to grow capacity, Freshpet has made strong progress starting up its new Freshpet Kitchen in Ennis, Texas and is now successfully producing and shipping from that facility rolls SKU’s accounting for more than 90% of its line-up. The Ennis Kitchen will eventually be Freshpet’s largest and most profitable manufacturing facility as scale and throughput improves.