QSR Chain Adds to Executive Team

Chester’s Chicken has announced the appointment of industry veteran Bill Rice as its EVP, head of sales, operations and supply chain.

In January, Rice came out of retirement to join the brand. Prior to that, he was senior vice president at Krispy Krunchy Foods, where he spent seven years. At Krispy Krunchy, he championed a redesign of the company’s supply chain network and overhauled procedures on issues including vendor and manufacturer selection. He also helped the brand to year-over-year double-digit sales growth by establishing and maintaining continuous sources of supply despite supply chain disruptions.

Altogether, Rice has nearly four decades of experience in foodservice supply chain management, having also held leadership roles at Intl. Traders/MBM Corp., Performance Food Group and Kraft Foodservice Corp.

Now, at Chester’s, he has been working on a supply chain optimization study. He also has been working to add new and profitable menu items, to equip the team with new sales tools and to bring on additional resources for the field team, notes the April 2 release.

Chester’s Chicken says it plans to accelerate its growth as Rice works to ensure team members have needed resources.