EVIN JACKSON WAS ONLY 32 when he was appointed CEO of Sanitarium Health Food Company, maker of Australia's and New Zealand's biggest-selling breakfast cereal. "Weet-Bix gets to about 90 percent of households in Australia and New Zealand," Jackson says. "That lets us bring the church's health message into the community in a way the church itself would find difficult. That is the key mission of this company."

Sanitarium Health Food Company is the largest food manufacturer in the world owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the twentieth largest food company in Australia. Its senior management are all Adventists, the chair of its board is the president of the South Pacific Division, and the company's assets are fully owned by the church. Sanitarium has been around since 1898, and has been making Weet-Bix since 1930. If you know any Australians who have emigrated to the U.S., you're more than likely to hear frequent wistful mentions of the wonders of Weet-Bix. "Weet-Bix is a legacy product," Jackson says. "In every culture there are products people were brought up on. In Australia and New Zealand Weet-Bix is an icon."

Weet-Bix is worth about $100 million (US$79 million) a year, but it isn't all about Weet-Bix. Sanitarium is the maker of Australia's biggest-selling soy milk, as well as juices, spreads, and vegetarian meal ingredients. It is the second-largest maker of refrigerated soy milk in North America and the United Kingdom and exports to more than 30 countries worldwide. The company employs about 1,700 people in 12 production and distribution sites across Australia and New Zealand and has an annual turnover of about $300 million (US$235 million).

Jackson has now been working as part of Sanitarium's management team since 1996, first as finance manager, then corporate project manager, general manager for operations, general manager of beverages and meals, and finally chief executive officer. The board unanimously voted him as the company's new CEO when Robert Smith retired in late 2000.
In his time at the helm, Jackson has significantly improved Sanitarium's profits, made it more professionally and commercially competitive, and expanded the company internationally.

Everyone who works with Jackson is impressed by his ability to sum up complicated situations quickly and then make good decisions. "Kevin is very strong strategically," says Dale Williams, Sanitarium's general manager for business development, who has worked with Jackson for the past four years. "He has a clear vision for the company and the direction it should go. . . . Kevin has a tremendous capacity to absorb and analyze information. He is very good at detail when that is required; however, he can quickly pull back to the macro level and see the big picture clearly. Not many people have the ability to perform exceptionally at both levels."

A Perfect Match
"From the time I was very young I was always coming up with business ideas," Jackson says. "I had the lemonade stand sort of thing." Jackson grew up in New Zealand and studied for a degree in commerce from Auckland University. After graduation, he went to work for Ernst & Young, one of the world's top global accounting firms. Jackson made a good name for himself at the firm and was put on the fast track to partnership. He worked in auditing and corporate advisory and performance improvement consulting. He was sent to the U.S. and the U.K. on special assignments. But after eight years Jackson and his Australian wife--who were based in New Zealand at the time--decided to go back to Australia. Meanwhile, Sanitarium was looking for some expertise in the performance area. It turned out to be a perfect match.

Soon after Jackson joined Sanitarium, its board decided the company needed major restructuring. Jackson was appointed to manage the project. "Kevin was the best person in the company when it came to strategy," says Robert Smith, who was serving as CEO of Sanitarium when Jackson was hired.

Jackson took on the challenge and implemented a comprehensive plan to take the business forward. Next, as general manager of operations, he replaced what were in many cases very outdated operational systems with new and leading edge systems. Sanitarium was able to save millions of dollars and now has some of the best operating systems anywhere.

Jackson's success did not go unnoticed. When Smith was getting ready to celebrate his sixty-fifth birthday and a well-earned retirement, Jackson seemed the obvious replacement choice--if one overlooked the fact that he was so young.

"It was my recommendation to the division president that Kevin be appointed to replace me as CEO," Smith says. "I then had the job of convincing Kevin that he was the right person for the position. . . . Some on the Sanitarium board wanted me to stay on for another year or two so Kevin could get a little more experience. I did not agree with this approach. It was my belief that the time was right for the company to move on and that Kevin was the ideal person to carry the company into the future. The best way to gain experience is to learn as you go. The results have shown that Kevin has been very successful as CEO."

Certainly Sanitarium has grown and prospered under Jackson's leadership. His keen business sense and hard work have paid dividends. But it is Sanitarium's mission that keeps Jackson, a dedicated Adventist, passionate about the company.

"First and foremost, Kevin is a real Christian who loves the Lord and in his own quiet way gives evidence of this," says Laurie Evans, president of the South Pacific Division and chair of Sanitarium's board. "He is committed and loyal to the church."

Adventist--And Proud of It
Sanitarium Health Food Company got its start when Willie White, Ellen G. White's son, begged John Harvey Kellogg to send a baker to Australia to teach the Australians to manufacture health food such as Kellogg was making. It was in the following years that Ellen White wrote a great deal about health food work. Ellen White wrote that such a work should provide funding for the support of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, educate the people of the world on principles of health and nutrition, and use its profits for the good of suffering humanity. It is these three principles that Sanitarium keeps at the forefront of its business.

Last year, Sanitarium contributed more than $15 million (US$12 million) for general church use. Sanitarium sponsors local church projects and has a strong presence at camp meetings and other church gatherings. "A significant portion of the division budget comes from Sanitarium every year," says Evans. "This is important given that we get little by way of base appropriation from the General Conference, so in that sense the company benefits the world church."

Sanitarium also runs a wide variety of community outreach programs that promote good health. The largest program is the Weet-Bix Kids TRY-athlon, an annual shortened version of the traditional triathlon (including running, cycling, and swimming events). Last year more than 18,000 kids, ages 7 to 15, participated in organized TRY-athlons in major cities across Australia and New Zealand. "The prime minister of New Zealand regularly attends [the TRY-athlon] as part of her program," Jackson says. "This series is the largest of its kind in the world; it starts kids on the right track to regular exercise and physical activity."

Another popular program is the Good Start Breakfast Club, which Sanitarium runs in partnership with the Australian Red Cross and ADRA. With this program, Sanitarium has committed to providing a healthful breakfast every day to kids who go to schools in certain disadvantaged areas. More than 150,000 breakfasts were provided last year to kids in 65 different schools. Feedback from this program shows increased academic performance, decrease in behavioral problems, and reduction in crime rates.

Sanitarium also runs a nutritional service that offers free nutritional advice to consumers and health professionals around Australia and New Zealand. "We have a whole department that any normal commercial entity wouldn't have, with 10 fully qualified nutritionists and dietitians," Jackson says. "They are focused solely on nutrition and helping with the development of the health message in the mainstream community--in particular sharing the church's philosophy on whole foods and a plant-based diet. They do everything from resource development for health professionals to running symposiums for the health community, publishing news sheets, and taking calls on our free consumer call line. They take about 50,000 calls from consumers every year. We are seen by the general public as the leading provider of nutritional information in the food industry. Obviously this is a reputation we guard jealously."

And these Sanitarium community outreach programs are really just the beginning. Sanitarium is involved in local education and charity in ways too numerous to recount here. In addition to its annual projects, the company sponsors a variety of other community-based projects every year, just for the asking. In fact, its Web site offers public guidelines for anyone who might want to ask Sanitarium to sponsor a specific worthy project.

Even in the competitive world of business, Sanitarium doesn't try to hide the fact that it is owned by the Adventist Church. "You'd be amazed at the opportunities I get to talk to people of all levels about the [Adventist] church," Jackson says. "We have access to many senior people in Australia and New Zealand. I've had a number of conversations with the Australian prime minister. In a recent meeting with a senior banker, we spent 20 minutes talking business and another hour talking about the beliefs of the Adventist Church. There are lots of opportunities to portray the church positively to the business community. That's given us a lot of respect over the years."

Of course, being an explicitly Adventist company in a secular world has its challenges as well. Sanitarium has made a firm commitment not to advertise on Sabbath, which often means that in addition to losing publicity, they have to pay an 8 percent penalty to the media for skipping Sabbath ads. The management has adopted stringent guidelines for programs they agree to advertise in, and they will not participate in TV programs that air on Sabbath.

Sanitarium's factories also close on Sabbath, while competitors run their manufacturing plants seven days a week. "From a commercial perspective, some of the standards we have means that our manufacturing costs more," Jackson says. Sanitarium also maintains a strict nutrition policy for its products, with limited levels of salt, sugar, and other potentially unhealthful ingredients, and has committed to never producing products outside those parameters. "That may be seen as restrictive," says Jackson. "But by taking that position you also support your brand and bring a level of authenticity to your product."

"Sometimes our values dictate that we do not conduct business quite the same way [as other companies], but I believe this is an asset in the long run," says general manager Dale Williams. "The range of products we offer is limited by the health principles we apply to our products, and that means some business opportunities must be passed up; however, those same principles provide us with a point of difference and create a level of trust in our products that is also a platform of advantage in the marketplace."

Priorities and Strategies
Despite his ambition and inarguable success so far as Sanitarium's youngest-ever CEO, Jackson maintains his quiet and unassuming personality. He is self-confident, with an imposing presence (Jackson stands well over six feet tall), but he has what some would call a naturally shy or introspective disposition. He works long hours, but he keeps his family life a priority. This is where the Sabbath really becomes a blessing. "A day of rest gives time to build quality relationships," Jackson says. His two daughters, Melissa and Emilie, are just 3 and 6 years old, and it's important to Jackson that he watch them grow up. "I have a policy of not taking work home, and I try to get out of the office at a reasonable time."

Maybe Jackson means he doesn't bring home his briefcase, but whenever there are new Sanitarium products in the pipeline, the Jackson family are among the first taste-testers. "If a new product doesn't pass the family test, I seriously question whether it should go to market," Jackson says.

And Sanitarium is always working on new products, in addition to marketing old favorites such as Weet-Bix and Marmite. Up & Go is a healthful liquid breakfast drink; Weet-Bix Crunch is a bite-sized Weet-Bix drizzled with honey; Lunch Today is a pre-prepared meal range that comes in a pouch. And those are just a few of Sanitarium's newer products. "Launching a new product properly takes about $5 million [US$4 million], so we want to be sure we do it right," Jackson says. "Industry statistics say about 80 percent of new products fail within the first three years. Sanitarium, on the other hand, has a reasonable hit rate on its products."

Jackson has certainly been a breath of fresh air for a very old company. He's now served as Sanitarium's CEO for close to five years, but he says even his leadership will get stale eventually. "It's good for companies to have change over a period of time," Jackson says. "Every now and then some fresh thinking is needed to move the organization in a slightly different direction. I feel good about the changes we've made and the long-term strategy we've put in place. It would be nice to be here long enough to see some of that through. But I won't be here forever." After all, Jackson is still young. More than half of his working life still lies ahead.

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Alita Byrd is a writer and editor currently living in Pretoria, South Africa. Weet-Bix is her breakfast cereal of choice.