ATLANTA — AUA Private Equity Partners, LLC has made several changes to the senior management team of Epic Baking Co., including the hiring of Phil Jones as chief executive officer.

Phil Jones, chief executive officer of Epic Baking Co. Photo: Epic Baking Co.Prior to joining Epic in July, Mr. Jones was president of Darnel Group, North America, for more than four years. Earlier, he was with CSM Bakery Solutions where he held a variety of roles, including senior vice president and chief commercial officer, and global vice president of foodservice. He also was with HJ Heinz Co. for more than 8 years and was with Coca-Cola Co. for 18 years.

In addition to Mr. Jones, other new senior managers include Brett Hill, Kevin Clark and Greg Warrick.

Mr. Hill has been named chief financial officer at Epic Baking. Mr. Hill has 30 years of finance experience from major global companies, including extensive experience in consumer products and food manufacturing. He most recently was vice president of finance at Maple Leaf Foods, Inc. He also has worked at Brambles, United Technologies, Pitney Bowes and Ford Motor Co.

Mr. Clark has joined Epic Baking as chief sales officer. He has 35 years of experience in the food industry and was most recently vice president of sales at Pretzilla Inc.  He also has worked as senior managing partner at Tonic Partners, senior vice president of Flatout, Inc., vice president of sales and marketing at Wenner Bread Products, vice president of sales at ConAgra Foods and regional vice president of Pillsbury Bakeries and Foodservice.

Mr. Warrick has been named vice president of operations at Epic Baking. Mr. Warrick joins Epic from AJM Packaging Corp., where he was director of manufacturing. He also has worked as director of operations, North America, at Darnel Group, plant manager at STEMCO, plant manager at Pactiv, LLC, and senior business consultant at TBM Consulting Group.

“The new executive leadership team at Epic Baking Co. is aimed at positioning the company as the trusted adviser to the artisan and specialty bread industry, enabling it to grow its market share with existing and new customers and channels, while acquiring additional baking businesses to accelerate growth into adjacent categories,” the company said.

Founded in 1985 in Atlanta, Epi Breads bakes and distributes a range of artisan-crafted bread products, including hoagies, rolls and buns for leading foodservice chains and grocery retailers. The company operates two BRC-certified facilities in Muskegon, Mich., and Atlanta. Epi Breads is a wholly owned subsidiary of Epic Baking Co., which was formed in September 2021 following AUA Private Equity’s acquisition of Epi Breads.