Alison Lewis: Reinventing a Natural Foods Pioneer
Some leaders inherit growth stories. Alison Lewis inherited the opposite. Since taking the reins at struggling Hain Celestial late last year, the longtime consumer products executive has had to move quickly to reshape one of natural foods’ most recognizable companies, cutting costs, selling brands, and making tough decisions about where the business should compete. The biggest statement came this year with the sale of Hain’s North American snacks business, a move that focuses the company on higher-margin categories like tea, yogurt and baby food while generating cash to pay down debt. It’s the kind of strategic reset that reflects Lewis’ decades of experience at Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and Kimberly-Clark, where she built a reputation for marrying brand building with operational discipline. While there’s a long way to go, if Lewis succeeds, she won’t just have engineered a corporate turnaround; she’ll have helped redefine what legacy natural food companies need to look like in a new era.