PepsiCo brings Spanish exec from Geneva to helm of Start Foods

Javier Urunuela, former Europe Business Development Director
of American-based PepsiCo, has been appointed general manager of
crisps producer Star Foods for Romania and Bulgaria, replacing
Greek manager Sotiris Yannopoulos, who left the company.
Spanish-born Urunuela, has been working at PepsiCo for seven years,
and came to Romania from the company’s Geneva branch, and, prior to
his position as development manager for Europe, was commercial
manager of PepsiCo in Spain. Sotiris Yannopoulos left the company
and the Romanian market after five years, during which time he
integrated Star Foods Romania into the PepsiCo group and
coordinated the launch of the Lay’s international brand, which
replaced Star Chips. Urunuela expects the crisps market to resist
the current economic turmoil that resulted in a dip in consumption.
“Crisps consumption slipped by 2% this year, which we see as a
small step back, considering the current economic conditions. We
managed to preserve the 2008 sales level,” said the new manager of
Star Foods Romania. The company posted a 98 million-euro turnover
in 2008, according to data from the Finance Ministry.