Flowers Foods Hires James Simms for New DSD Sales Job

Jan. 15, 2024

He spent 20 years at PepsiCo in a variety of sales leadership roles.

Flowers Foods hired James Simms away from PepsiCo to take the newly created position executive vice president of DSD (direct store distribution) sales operations.

Simms spent 20 years at PepsiCo in a variety of sales leadership roles with increasing responsibility. Most recently, he was vice president-PepsiCo customer lead, where he was accountable for strategic growth of PepsiCo’s total portfolio (Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Quaker Foods, Gatorade, Tropicana) with key retailers.

Prior to PepsiCo, he held various sales and marketing roles in the foodservice and healthcare industries. In this newly created role at Flowers, Simms reports to Heeth Varnedoe, president and chief operating officer.

About the Author

Dave Fusaro | Editor in Chief

Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.