Vital Farms Hires Thilo Wrede As CFO

Egg & dairy company Vital Farms today announced the hiring of Thilo Wrede as CFO. Wrede will succeed the company’s current CFO, Bo Meissener, in March who has held the position since December 2020.

Wrede brings over a decade of CPG food industry experience to the role having most recently served as global CFO at Sabra Dipping Company. Prior to Sabra, Wrede spent six years at PepsiCo in regional CFO and business strategy roles, including leading financial teams in the company’s Central and South American sectors.

“Thilo brings a disciplined leadership approach and a proven ability to create long-term value that will help us continue delivering for all of our stakeholders,” said Russell Diez-Canseco, president and CEO at Vital Farms. “His experience across world-class consumer packaged goods brands and as a sell-side analyst make him a uniquely strong fit for our company at this stage in our growth trajectory.”

Meissener had served as Vital’s EVP of finance for six months before he was promoted to CFO in December 2020. He helped guide the company through its early stages as a public company, according to a press release, and will remain active in the business until July in order to assist with Wrede’s transition. Meissener has not announced future career plans.

“Bo has done a masterful job building our finance team and putting all of the fundamental building blocks in place,” continued Diez-Canseco. “He led this organization through a period of incredible growth, and we wish him the best as he shifts his priority to spending more time with his family.”

Vital Farms currently sells a range of egg and butter products sourced from its network of over 300 family farms. The Austin-based company has positioned itself around a mission for “conscious capitalism” and expanded that goal in August with the launch of its Restorative Eggs line at Whole Foods, which are produced by chickens raised in pastures using regenerative practices.

On its 2022 third quarter earnings call last November, the company reported net revenues of $92 million, up 42.4% from the prior quarter, and net income of $700,000.

The news also comes as egg prices in the U.S. have reached record highs in the wake of the avian flu outbreak which began in early 2022 and has since caused the death of over 49 million birds in 46 states as of November 2022, according to Vital Farms. Currently a dozen Vital Farms eggs cost between $6 to $8.99. Citing inflationary pressures and rising input costs, the company instituted a round of pricing increases for its eggs last month.

The company received notice that one of its partner farms was experiencing an outbreak in late November, marking the first supplier in its network to be impacted by the disease. At the time, the company said it was believed to be an isolated outbreak and has not reported any new cases within its network since.

“Even if we were to have a farm affected by Avian influenza, it represents a small portion of our overall supply, Diez-Canseco told analysts on the earnings call, which occurred before the outbreak was announced. “It can be pretty good for sales if you have eggs and there aren’t as many as consumers would like. What we want to do is ensure that our loyal consumers can have our eggs and that we simply aren’t the default choice because there aren’t any others on the shelf.”