Traeger Announces Appointment of Jim Hardy as President of MEATER
Traeger, Inc. ("Traeger") (NYSE:COOK), creator and category leader of the wood pellet grill, today announced the appointment of Jim Hardy as President of MEATER. The appointment of Mr. Hardy follows a comprehensive search that considered both external and internal candidates. The founders of MEATER, Wen Nivala, Teemu Nivala, and Joseph Cruz, are expected to transition out of their leadership roles at the end of this year. Traeger's executive team will be evaluating a transition plan for Mr. Hardy's responsibilities as Chief Operating Officer in the coming months.
"Jim has proven to be an invaluable partner and leader at our Company," said Traeger CEO Jeremy Andrus. "MEATER is a critical part of the Traeger story and I am thrilled to have Jim lead its next phase of growth. As we evaluated succession planning for MEATER, it became clear that Jim was the right candidate. In his role as COO of Traeger, Jim assumed executive oversight of MEATER. This experience, along with his decades-long track record of leadership and operational excellence, make him well positioned to successfully lead MEATER and ensures a seamless transition."
Mr. Andrus continued, "I would like to thank Wen, Teemu, and Joseph for their contributions in driving MEATER's strong growth since we acquired the business and I wish them success in their future endeavors."
Jim Hardy has served as Chief Operating Officer of Traeger since September 2022 and previously served as Chief Supply Chain Officer since March 2021. He has over 35 years of operations experience, and previously served as Chief Operating Officer of Fanatics, Inc. and Executive Vice President Global Operations of Under Armour, Inc.
About Traeger
Traeger Grills, headquartered in Salt Lake City, is the creator and category leader of the wood pellet grill, an outdoor cooking system that ignites all-natural hardwoods to grill, smoke, bake, roast, braise, and barbecue. In 2023, Traeger entered the griddle category, further establishing its leadership position in the outdoor cooking space. Traeger grills are versatile and easy to use, empowering cooks of all skill sets to create delicious meals with flavor that cannot be replicated. Grills are at the core of our platform and are complemented by Traeger wood pellets, rubs, sauces, accessories, and MEATER smart thermometers.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding the success of Mr. Hardy's transition to President of MEATER. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, our history of operating losses, our ability to manage our future growth effectively, our ability to expand into additional markets, our ability to maintain and strengthen our brand to generate and maintain ongoing demand for our products, our ability to cost-effectively attract new customers and retain our existing customers, our failure to maintain product quality and product performance at an acceptable cost, the impact of product liability and warranty claims and product recalls, the highly competitive market in which we operate, the use of social media and community ambassadors, a decline in sales of our grills, our dependence on three major retailers, risks associated with our international operations, our reliance on a limited number of third-party manufacturers and problems with (or loss of) our suppliers or an inability to obtain raw materials, and the ability of our stockholders to influence corporate matters and the other important factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in our periodic and current reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022. Any such forward-looking statements represent management's estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.
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