Flowers Foods names David Roach chief DSD operations officer, consolidates cake division under Dan Scott

New DSD chief to tighten execution in Thomasville

Flowers Foods is restructuring its direct-store-delivery (DSD) leadership by naming David Roach as chief DSD operations officer, a newly created role based at the company’s Thomasville, Georgia headquarters. Roach assumes full profit-and-loss responsibility for Flowers’ DSD business and is charged with overseeing sales performance, operational efficiency and cross-functional alignment across the company’s bakery value chain. He reports to Heeth Varnedoe, president and chief operating officer.

The move is designed to sharpen ownership of DSD sales performance and provide greater visibility and influence over execution, Varnedoe says. By concentrating P&L accountability in a single leader, Flowers aims to accelerate decision-making and improve responsiveness to retail customers in an increasingly dynamic marketplace. The appointment signals a push to convert strategic priorities into measurable improvements in execution and margin performance.

Roach brings more than 30 years of experience at Flowers, most recently serving as chief strategic projects officer and previously as president of cake operations, with leadership roles in snacking, organics, national and regional sales and operations in Villa Rica, Ga., and Nashville, Tenn. His internal promotion reflects Flowers’ preference for elevating executives with cross‑functional bakery and DSD experience to drive tighter integration between sales, manufacturing and distribution.

Consolidating the cake business under one leader

As part of the same restructuring, Flowers consolidates its end-to-end cake business into a new cake division led by Dan Scott, senior vice president, cake, who reports to Roach. Scott, a Flowers executive since 1999 with extensive DSD sales and bakery operations experience, is charged with accelerating performance and driving profitable growth across the cake portfolio.

Operational rigor and strategic focus

Flowers frames the organizational changes as part of a broader effort to operate with greater speed and efficiency and to deliver consistent value to retail partners and consumers. The company issues the announcement via PRNewswire from its Thomasville headquarters, emphasizing clearer accountability and targeted investment in DSD and cake categories as strategic priorities to support market share and margin improvement.