Mondelēz International promoted Zakaria Dahkoun to chief procurement officer, effective Aug. 1, Global Media Relations Manager Desiree Battaglia confirmed in an email to Supply Chain Dive.
Dahkoun most recently served as SVP of cocoa enterprise for the company behind brands such as Oreo and Chips Ahoy, according to Battaglia. He has also held other sourcing leadership positions across his more than 13 years with Mondelēz, including SVP of global direct materials sourcing.
“His experience covers end-to-end procurement across diverse categories and geographies,” Battaglia said, noting that Dahkoun has more than 21 years of procurement expertise overall.
Dahkoun replaced Thomas Gaengler, who served as Mondelēz’s chief procurement officer for four years before joining chocolate maker Barry Callebaut as chief operating officer earlier this month.
Dahkoun is leading procurement for Mondelēz after years of volatility for one of the company’s key sourcing inputs: cocoa. Higher prices for the ingredient pushed the company to shift some of its product mix by launching less chocolate-reliant products, but the tide seems to be turning.
“I think cocoa in terms of supply and demand for the years to come is in a much different situation and a much better one,” EVP and COO Luca Zaramella said at the Barclays Global Consumer Staples Conference earlier this month, noting that the market is oversupplied after cocoa suppliers ramped up production due to years of volatility.
“And if you look at the last five years, what got made in the last couple of years is more than sufficient to cover the deficit that caused a stock depletion in the years before,” Zaramella said.
Mondelēz is also gearing up for a major overhaul of its Oreo brand in 2027, including plans to debut “new formulas that will result in better labels,” according to Zaramella.
