South Australian confectionery company Robern Menz has appointed Peter Siebels as its new chair. Siebels is principal of his own advisory business, with a background in finance, business strategy and consulting. He was a partner at KPMG for 20 years and is currently chair of Hood Sweeney and Fox Creek Wines and vice president of the Royal Automobile Association of SA.
Siebels told Food & Drink Business on press day that his experience working with family businesses, and the dynamic relationship between family ownership and a successful business was something he relished. “Clearly it’s an iconic brand so it was quite an honour to be asked and I’m looking forward to it,” he says.
Helping the company achieve its goals in terms of growth and providing a sound governance framework to do that are the foundations for his role, but also working with the Sims family on what they would like to achieve is something Siebels relishes. “The overlay of family with some awesome brands, the growth that has been achieved and continues is very exciting,” he says.
Robern Menz CEO Phil Sims says Siebels’ experience and strategic guidance would prove invaluable to the organisation through rapid change. “Our recent acquisitions of the Polly Waffle and Violet Crumble brands have accelerated the evolution of the Robern Menz business, with bigger facilities, more staff and global growth plans,” Sims says.
Siebels told F&DB that acquiring the iconic brands meant the challenge was now to leverage the investment and that Robern Menz has only “scratched the surface”. He sees growth in global markets as the next step. Sims has spent time developing US markets and Siebels says now it is a case of “land and expand”. “A lot of good work has already been done, but what it could be is yet to be determined,” he says.
“Consolidating Violet Crumble and Polly Waffle is our immediate focus but one thing I’ve learnt is the confectionery business is a very innovative industry. The good thing about a family business compared to a global conglomerate is that they are nimble. Decisions can be made for the longer term, not just the profit in the next twelve months.”
Siebels says while the short term focus is to create and consolidate the exciting opportunities with Violet Crumble and Polly Waffle, beyond that Robern Menz is innovative so “watch this space”.
