BOULDER, COLO. — Specialty pasta and pizza maker Cappello’s has expanded its leadership team with two new hires. Rajesh Babu has joined the company as president, and Ken Jenner has been named vice president of research and development and commercialization.
Previously, Mr. Babu was chief operations officer at Birch Benders, a maker of pancake and waffle mixes, scaling the brand to four product lines and leading its acquisition by Sovos Brands. Mr. Jenner was formerly the vice president of innovation at Boulder Brands and brings more than two decades of experience in technical food science and culinary arts to his new role.
Cappello’s offers a portfolio of grain-free pasta formulated with almond flour. Other products include grain-free frozen pizza and grain-free, vegan cookie dough. Cappello’s recently became the top-selling frozen pasta brand in the natural channel, according to SPINS data, and has expanded distribution significantly over the past year into retailers including Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Kroger and others.
“We couldn’t be more excited to bring these talented, creative, intelligent, natural food brand alums onto our crew,” said Ben Frohlichstein, chief executive officer of Cappello’s. “With our sights set on new distribution and innovation, these two roles are an essential move we’ve taken to continue to pursue our mission to set a new standard in the frozen aisle.”