SECAUCUS, N.J. — Freshpet, Inc. announced July 19 a series of upcoming changes to its manufacturing and supply chain leadership.

Stephen Weise, current executive vice president of manufacturing and supply chain, plans to retire at the end of 2022. Until then, Weise will continue leading the company’s incremental production capacity planning initiatives and other responsibilities through the end of this year. In 2022, he will focus solely on incremental capacity planning up until his retirement.

“No single person could replace what Steve has done for Freshpet and we are so grateful for his many years of service,” said Billy Cyr, chief executive officer of Freshpet. “During his tenure, we have grown our net sales by almost four times and by the time he fully retires next year we will have installed more than $1 billion in net sales capacity. We are incredibly grateful to him for his leadership and willingness to help our organization execute an orderly transition during this important time in our growth cycle.”


In preparation of Weise’s retirement, Freshpet has appointed Chris Taranto, current vice president of supply chain, to lead the company’s logistics operations. Ricardo Moreno, vice president of manufacturing, will oversee operations at the company’s Kitchens.

“Ricardo Moreno, whom we hired last year as a key part of our succession planning, is now fully prepared to take on all the day-to-day manufacturing operations as VP of Manufacturing, and Chris Taranto, VP of Supply Chain, will add logistics to his responsibilities,” Cyr said. “We are fortunate to have built a deep bench that has the capability to step into these important roles while Steve will retain responsibility for long-term capacity planning until his full retirement at the end of next year 2022.”

Both Taranto and Moreno will report directly to Cyr.

Read more about personnel changes throughout the industry.