Calavo Growers, a leading company in the avocado and value-added fresh food industries, has announced the promotion of Ron Araiza to Executive Vice President of Calavo Fresh Foods.

In his new role, Araiza will be responsible for leading the Renaissance Food Group (RFG) and Calavo Foods business segments.

He will focus his leadership sights on aligning the RFG and Calavo Foods sales teams, while building synergies between the two divisions to leverage relationships and streamline processes, the company said.

“As we continue to build out our One Company vision, we are excited to have the RFG and Calavo Foods teams work together to further optimize business opportunities,” stated Jim Gibson, Chief Executive Office.

“With over 30 years in the produce and food industry, I have no doubt Ron will do a great job leading our sales teams and help usher in a new and exciting era for Calavo.”

In addition, current RFG veteran Kate Brooks was promoted to SVP Retail Sales, where she will oversee all retail sales for the company, and Ed Redd will continue to serve as SVP Emerging Channels Division, focusing on building out foodservice, convenience store and military channel sales opportunities for RFG.

Brooks and Redd will report into Araiza and help to drive future sales success for Calavo. Araiza assumed his new role effective August 4, 2021.