Hormel Foods Corp. and Forward Consumer Partners have completed the spinoff of the Justin’s brand into a standalone company owned 51% by Forward and 49% by Hormel. The transaction to change the operating status of the nut butters and confections brand was announced in October 2025.
As part of the transformation, several former Justin’s executives are returning to run the new business. Founder Justin Gold will return as a strategic advisor and member of the partnership’s board of directors, and former chief executive officer Peter Burns will serve in the same capacity for Justin’s moving forward. Meanwhile, Hunt Killough (chief growth & strategy officer), Mark Doiron (chief sales officer) and Jeff Perkel (senior vice president of marketing & e-commerce) also return to Justin’s.
David Ziegert will be the company’s chief operating officer, and Randy Gilbride will join the company as vice president of brand & commercial strategy. Also joining the board of directors is Val Oswalt, chief executive officer of Kodiak and founding member of Forward’s advisory board.
Justin’s was founded in 2004 and acquired by Hormel in 2016. It joins the Forward stable of brands, which includes Kodiak, Firehook, Xochitl and Via Carota Craft Cocktails among others.
About the Author
Andy Hanacek
Senior Editor
Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.