Following the $1.7-billion acquisition of Pioneer Foods in March, food and beverage maker PepsiCo has appointed current Pioneer Foods CEO Tertius Carstens CEO of its sub-Saharan Africa business, with immediate effect.

The sub-Saharan Africa headquarters will be based in South Africa, which PepsiCo plans to expand and drive profitable growth across the region − an integral part of fulfilling PepsiCo’s ambition to become a major food and beverage role player in Africa.

PepsiCo Africa, Middle East and South Asia (Amesa) CEO Eugene Willemsen says Carstens is uniquely qualified and experienced to lead the sub-Saharan African operations with a strong record in the fast-moving consumer goods sector and African markets.

“His appointment is a major step in enabling the integration of Pioneer Foods into PepsiCo and the successful execution of our sub-Saharan African growth strategy.”

Carstens will be supported by four business unit leaders, with combined food and beverage industry experience of more than 100 years, each of whom will be responsible for essential foods, groceries, South Africa snacks and sub-Saharan African foods and beverages respectively.

Carstens also joins the PepsiCo Amesa executive committee.

An engineer by qualification, Carstens was appointed as Pioneer Foods CEO and executive director in 2017. He is a seasoned executive with 25 years’ experience and a proven record in the fast-moving consumer goods industry and the African market.

He was instrumental in the development of Pioneer's joint ventures which span the African continent.

Carstens explains that the current Covid-19 pandemic has made clear and accelerated the need for decisive and agile decision making, responsiveness and coordination.

“We believe this will be best served by a single leadership team across the Pioneer Foods, Simba and sub-Saharan Africa food and beverage businesses, and together we are looking forward to overcoming the immediate challenges and positioning the business for growth”.