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PURCHASE, N.Y. - Newly appointed PepsiCo restaurant group president and vice chairman David Novak tapped three veterans of the advertising-and-marketing world to hold the top posts at the triad of restaurant concepts to be spun off from PepsiCo Inc. later this year.
The three new executives - Peter Waller at Taco Bell, Jeff Moody at KFC and Mike Rawlings at Pizza Hut - each will serve as president and chief concept officer as part of a revamped organizational structure that is expected to consolidate some functions at the chains while preserving their marketing and operations autonomy.
The three chains also are expected to remain based in their current headquarters Taco Bell in Irvine, Calif.; KFC in Louisville, Ky.; and Pizza Hut in Dallas, where the international division also is based. A location for what is being called the "restaurant support center" has not yet been identified, a PepsiCo spokesman said.
In the new organizational structure, the president and chief concept officer - a newly created title at each of the chains -- would be responsible for marketing, research and development, concept development and "overall leadership of the brand," PepsiCo said in a prepared release. A chief operating officer and all functional heads will report to the president of each brand.
PepsiCo earlier this month said it would elevate Novak from president and chief executive of both KFC and Pizza Hut to president and vice chairman of the new company -- referred to internally as "NewCo" but not yet officially named - and tapped former PepsiCo president Andrall Pearson as the concern's chairman and chief executive. Days earlier Taco Bell president and chief executive John Antioco left to join video-rental chain Blockbuster Entertainment.
PepsiCo said senior-management appointments at the international division, which comprises nearly 9,000 total units and accounted for $2.3 billion in sales and $153 million in operating profits in 1996, would be "forthcoming." The company recently transferred former PepsiCo Restaurants International president James O'Neal to its Frito-Lay International division.
Novak also tapped Jonathan Blum as senior vice president of public affairs at the new company, elevating him from vice...