Puerto Montt, Chile-based salmon farmer Multiexport Foods has announced that its general manager, Andrés Lyon, will take on other responsibilities in the company and be replaced by food industry executive Cristián Swett.
After ten years and what the company said was an “outstanding performance” at the helm of Multiexport Foods, Lyon will take on the role of director and vice president of Salmones Multiexport SA – the operating subsidiary of Multiexport Foods – beginning on 1 February, 2021, to support the company’s strategic direction and future development. The move “seeks to strengthen the executive and management team to carry out the new challenges facing the company and the salmon farming sector,” Multiexport said in a press release.
Cristián Swett has an MBA from ESE Business School and extensive experience in the food industry. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is currently CEO at the multinational dairy company Manuka. Before that, he served as general manager and director in the salmon company Ventisqueros. Swett had previously worked at Multiexport Foods in positions including deputy sales manager in Japan, manager of its smoked salmon unit, and general manager of Alimentos Multiexport.
Multiexport Foods Executive President José Ramón Gutiérrez said Swett’s career development at the company has been impressive.
"We are very happy that Cristián has accepted this challenge and will return to our company, where he has already developed a positive trajectory of more than 10 years, with a vast knowledge of the sector, so we know his capabilities and we are convinced that he will manage and develop the company with great success,” Gutiérrez said.
Gutiérrez also credited Swett with having overseen one of the company's fastest growing stages, having carried out processes that positioned the company as one of the world’s largest salmon producers “with high sustainability standards.”
The announcement marks the company’s second significant shift in management this year. In March, Multiexport hired Josefina Lyon as its new manager of the value-added products (VAP) division. The branch, part of the commercial department, oversees all activities of the smoked salmon business, which in 2019 bought in USD 42 million (EUR 38.6 million) in sales, placing Multiexport as Chile’s leading exporter of value-added salmon products with a 69 percent share, according to the company.
Founded in 1987, Multiexport Foods has more than 2,400 employees and handles over 100,000 tons of salmon a year, with productive activities in southern Chile’s Regions IX, X, XI, and XII. It is present throughout the salmon production chain, from reproduction to distribution to the final customer in more than 30 countries.
