Baruch, who began his career at Procter & Gamble and spent 14 years at The Clorox Company in a number of leadership roles, most recently served as vice president, category advisory services at Coca-Cola.
Prior to that, he was president and chief operating officer of Cotn’Wash, Inc.
Schiff president and CEO Tarang Amin said Baruch’s brand-building experience would boost the team: “With over 20 years of experience expanding brands and delivering results at leading companies such as Coca-Cola, Clorox, and Procter & Gamble, we believe Rich will help broaden our commercial opportunities.”
Brand-building strategy
Schiff, which is increasing sales and marketing investment as a percentage of sales from 16% in 2011 to 23-24.5% in 2012 as part of its brand-building strategy, now generates 86% of its sales from branded products (and 14% from private label products).
It is focused on four key areas: Heart health (MegaRed, which contains Aker BioMarine’s krill oil), joint care (Move Free), immune support (via the recently acquired brand Airborne) and digestive health (Digestive Advantage - which contains Ganeden’s ultra-resilient probiotic BC30).
Schiff, which posted a 15% rise in net income to $4.6m and a 25% rise in net sales to $72.2m in the three months to February 29, is based in Salt Lake City with a sales office in Bentonville and a sourcing office in Beijing.