Kraft Heinz puts one leader in charge of North America supply chain and procurement as it restructures

The details

• Consumer Goods Technology reported on Oct. 6 that Kraft Heinz hired Alvaro Cantillo to lead supply chain and procurement for North America. Cantillo’s LinkedIn profile shows he started as chief supply chain and procurement officer, North America Zone, in September 2026.
• The role was created as part of Kraft Heinz’s 2026 restructuring. CEO Steven Cahillane said on the August earnings call that the shift simplifies the North America operating model by consolidating supply chain and procurement functions to improve efficiency, aligned to a new global structure. Procurement Magazine’s October people-moves roundup confirms the appointment under the company’s three-region operating structure.
• This is the regional half of a two-step move. In summer 2026 the company appointed Janelle Aydin as global leader of the combined procurement and supply chain function.
• Cantillo brings more than 25 years of end-to-end CPG and consumer health supply chain experience across Kraft Heinz, Haleon, Reckitt, Colgate-Palmolive and Henkel. He joined from Haleon, where he led North America end-to-end operations across a commercial scope of more than $6 billion. Before that he was head of supply for Reckitt’s North America market, responsible for three factories, five distribution centers and more than 30 co-packers. He spent 18 years at Colgate-Palmolive, including as corporate director of global supply chain performance and strategy overseeing more than 80 sites.
• The restructure sits inside a broader turnaround: Cahillane said Kraft Heinz is deploying an incremental $600 million across product superiority, select pricing, marketing, sales and R&D, mostly focused on the U.S. business.

What buyers should do

• If you sell into Kraft Heinz: map your touchpoints to the new zone structure and expect category reviews to consolidate under fewer, higher-authority owners. Bring a single-line-of-sight service and cost story to the new leadership.
• If you benchmark CPG org design: Kraft Heinz joins the list of large buyers formally merging procurement and supply chain reporting. Model how a combined zone leader changes your own escalation paths and scorecards.
• Watch pricing governance. Consolidated functions tend to re-paper supplier agreements; check whether your Kraft Heinz contracts move to new templates or entity assignments.

What to watch next

• Appointments completing the other two zones’ leadership teams under the three-region model.
• Kraft Heinz earnings commentary on procurement and supply chain savings targets from the combined structure.
• Whether consolidation shows up in the company’s supplier counts as zone teams take over category reviews.

The bigger picture

The move echoes what Mondelēz did in September, promoting its cocoa chief to CPO as we reported — large food companies are handing procurement and supply chain to operators whose background is end-to-end manufacturing and distribution, not pure sourcing. For suppliers, that usually means decisions get faster, relationships get fewer, and the performance bar gets measured in service and landed cost rather than category-by-category price alone.