IN THE SP0TLIGHT
Dennis M . Mullen
President & CEO, Agrilink Foods, Inc., Rochester, N.Y.
Cooperative Communicators Association's CEO Communicator of the Year
Dennis Mullen: "Our mission is to explain why we do what we do."Photo courtesy Co-op Communicators Association
Co-op description:
Agrilink Foods is a $1.5 billion national food company that processes and markets a variety of product lines of branded, private label and foodservice products in 32 facilities located throughout the United States and in Mexico. Included in Agrilink Foods' portfolio are the Birds Eye, Veg-All, McKenzie, Comstock, and Wilderness brands. Agrilink Food is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pro-Fac Cooperative, an agricultural marketing cooperative which consists of more than 600 member-growers. It processes fruits, vegetables and popcorn through its subsidiaries, Agrilink Foods and AgriFrozen. Pro-Fac Cooperative is also now doing business under its Agrilink name and only uses the Pro-Fac name in legal documents.
Professional background:
Mullen graduated from St. Leo College, St. Leo, Fla., with a bachelor of arts degree in education. Before joining the Pro-Fac Cooperative family, he was with Globe Products Co., Clifton, NJ.; The Nestle Co., White Plains, N.Y.; Farmland Industries, Franklin Park, Ill.; and Butoni Foods, South Hackensack, NJ.
Mullen joined Agrilink Foods in its Nalley Fine Foods division in Tacoma, Wash., in 1990. After three years there,he moved to Agrilink's Curtice Bums Foods. In 1996, Mullen was named chief operating officer for Agrilink, Rochester, N.Y. Six months later, he was promoted to president and chief executive officer.
Community and industry roles:
Mullen serves on the boards of directors for the following organizations: American
Heart Association, Gene
see Valley Region; Grocery Manufacturersof America; National
Food Processors Association; St. Leo College; The Popcorn
Institute; United Way of Greater Rochester;
Rochester Institute of Technology, School of Food, Hotel and Travel Management national
advisory board; and Chase Manhattan
Bank, northeast regional advisory board.
Greatest challenge facing Agrilink:
Our greatest challenge is one of connuing to compete and grow in the
extremely competitive food business,
where mergers continue to create fewer, but much larger companies with greater
economies of scale. We must be a low-cost
operator in everything we do, from
purchasing to manufacturing to adminstrative functions. This is the challenge I've presented to our employees and will continue to pursue as we move forward.
How do you view your
communication role as the CEO?
"I'm a true believer in the impact
communications can have on all aspects
of business and I promote this passionately
in any conversation, meetings, etc. Our communications mission is to explain 'why we do what we do,' and we have a variety of vehicles to help achieve this goal. I am committed to sharing this vision, in person, wherever possible."
Mullen is about to begin another series of employee meetings across the country. These 'road shows' will be similar to what he did a couple years ago when he met with all employees, in small meetings during day and evening shifts over several weeks. The first series of meetings was prior to Agrilink's acquisition of the former Dean Foods Vegetable Co., which has now doubled the number of employees. This year's trip will mean meetings, in larger groups, to address the nearly 6,000 employees now part of Agrilink.
"When I meet with employees or members and they understand our mission ... our core values ... our strategic thrusts, then I know we are getting that message throughout the organization," Mullen explains. "We recently produced an orientation video for new employees and I was thrilled to hear some of the concepts about being a 'low-cost producer,' 'excellence in performance,' and 'working together as teams' being repeated by our employees in the video. That tells me our communications efforts are working."
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