ATLANTA (April 20, 2021) – Focus Brands®, parent company of iconic brands Auntie Anne’s®, Carvel®, Cinnabon®, Jamba®, Moe’s Southwest Grill®, McAlister’s Deli® and Schlotzsky’s®, today announced Guillermo Cremer as its new chief people officer and Joe Guith as category president, Restaurant Brands.
“We are thrilled to have Guillermo and Joe at the helm of two critical areas of our organization,” said Jim Holthouser, CEO for Focus Brands. “As our company grows, we will continue to put an intense emphasis on our people and culture, while providing best-in-class service to our brand franchisees and suppliers to drive our company forward.”
Cremer brings more than 20 years of human resources experience to Focus Brands, with a special emphasis on talent development, change management, building a strong culture, and implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion strategies. He joins Focus Brands most recently from Kimberly Clark in Atlanta, where he spent seven years supporting different business units, including more recently the Professional division. In this role, he delivered strategic HR leadership, led development programs for employees and actively participated in an HR transformation to support the changing needs of the organization. While there, he also oversaw the HR function for the Latin America business unit. Guillermo has served in several HR leadership roles at General Mills and Procter & Gamble. He holds a master’s degree from Purdue University and a bachelor’s degree from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico.
Joe Guith, currently the president of McAlister’s Deli, has been promoted to category president, Restaurant Brands. Over the past six years, he has held the brand president position at McAlister’s Deli from 2018 to 2021 and Cinnabon from 2015 to 2018, with both brands seeing steady growth and expanded customer bases during his tenure. Joe’s expertise of operating restaurants, combined with his passion for growing brands, accelerating digital capabilities and developing high-performing teams, will be incredibly valuable to the Focus Brands portfolio of restaurants. During his time in the food and beverage industry, he has also served in general management and strategic roles with The Coca-Cola Company and Yum! Brands. Joe has a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the University of Michigan.
About Focus Brands
Atlanta-based Focus Brands is a leading developer of global multi-channel foodservice brands. FOCUS Brands, through its affiliate brands, is the franchisor and operator of more than 6,000 restaurants, cafes, ice cream shoppes, and bakeries in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and over 50 foreign countries under the brand names Auntie Anne’s®, Carvel®, Cinnabon®, Jamba®, Moe’s Southwest Grill®, McAlister’s Deli®, and Schlotzsky’s®, as well as Seattle’s Best Coffee® on certain military bases and in certain international markets. Please visit www.focusbrands.com to learn more.
Contact:
Angie Champsaur
Director of Corporate Communications, FOCUS Brands
achampsaur@focusbrands.com
