Coke supply chain exec named COO at Coregistics

Atlanta-based Coregistics, packaging and supply chain services company, named Chris Gaffney its new chief operating officer (COO) to oversee operations the company’s six facilities. This fills the chair left open by COO Kevin Hall, who has been named executive vice president of business development.

Gaffney is former senior vice president at Coca-Cola Refreshments, known until 2010 as the independently owned Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., Coke’s largest bottler. He has nearly 30 years of logistics and supply chain experience, of which 19 he spent in the Coca-Cola organization, where he also held roles including president of Coca-Cola Supply and vice president of logistics for Coca-Cola North America. Previously, he held positions at global meat and protein provider AJC International and at Frito-Lay.

“The guy’s brilliant,” Eric Wilhelm, CEO of Coregistics said, summing up Gaffney’s role at “the biggest brand in the world,” where he reportedly led the creation of a supply chain and logistics shared services company and oversaw the supply chain integration work stream for the largest vertical integration in company history.

‘Being’ the customer
In explaining how the new COO’s experience will help Coregistics, Wilhelm said it’s similar to sports teams whose athletes are coached to “be the ball. What better way to completely be in touch with the customer than for us to be the customer?”

In fact, Gaffney had been a customer of the a prior contract packaging business of Wilhelm’s, Wilpak. The two have since been well acquainted, rubbing elbows in the Atlanta business community.

Responsibilities fall into several areas, however, Gaffney said the overall focus is on “advancing the company’s business model” which departs from traditional co-packing businesses to better manage the speed, customization and complexity required to deal with consumer marketing channels.

Gaffney holds a Bachelor of Science: Industrial Engineering and a Master of Science: Industrial Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Coregistics provides primary and secondary packaging solutions to consumer goods companies from six facilities in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee, as well as customer embedded operations elsewhere. Services range from packaging design and material sourcing to customization and distribution.