Quinn Foods Announces Long Awaited New CEO

After over a year of searching, Quinn Foods has found its next leader.

The gluten-free snack brand is promoting from within, elevating chief commercial officer Al Matulis to CEO after over four years at the company.

Quinn founder Kristy Lewis took to LinkedIn this week to celebrate her company’s 13 years in business. Along with some philosophical musings on founding a CPG food company, Lewis congratulated Matulis as the new CEO saying: “It’s about time. You totally got this.”

The announcement comes after over a year and a half of leadership shakeups at the Boulder, Colorado-based snack food company. Starting in January 2022, Lewis moved out of the CEO post to become chief visionary officer and was replaced by Mike Keown (formerly head of sports nutrition brand Honey Stinger). Keown ended up leaving the company only months later in October and Sarah Bird – who was hired in August as CMO – stepped in as interim CEO.

While Bird was listed as CEO on Quinn’s Team website in March, Matulis is currently shown as the chief executive. Bird is now absent from the webpage despite her LinkedIn profile still reporting her as Quinn Interim CEO.

Matulis joined Quinn as VP of sales in March 2019 and has continued to work his way up the executive ladder serving as chief sales officer before his most recent role as CCO for the past 6 months, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Before joining Quinn, Matulis was VP of sales at Chicago Custom Foods which specialized in seasonings for the popcorn and hot cereal categories. He also spent five years at the Kellogg Company in the snack and breakfast divisions.

Launching in 2010, Quinn has expanded from its roots as a popcorn brand and found success in gluten-free pretzels. The snack company saw an opportunity moving into gluten-free pretzels where options were somewhat minimal for consumers outside of Snyder’s and Glutino. Matulis takes over Quinn as more competition comes into the category with grain-free pretzel brand FitJoy competing for shelf space in the gluten-free aisle.

In 2020, Quinn garnered a minority stake from Hershey’s and capital from the investment arm of the Lissette family (owners of Utz Quality Foods). The company closed a $10 million in 2021 after a bridge round of $3 million the previous summer.