ETİ Names Ümran Beba Americas President, So How Does a Turkish Food Brand Grow in the US?
ETİ has a new Americas President: Ümran Beba took up the role on ETİ’s Global Executive Committee on 6 October 2026, reporting to ETİ Global CEO Ercan Öz (Perakende.org, 7 October 2026). Her remit covers leading ETİ’s operations in the Americas, the region’s growth strategy, strengthening the organisation and developing TRUBAR, the brand ETİ has brought into the group. Beba spent 25 of her roughly 40 years in fast-moving consumer goods at PepsiCo.
If you run a food brand that wants to sell abroad, here is the point. ETİ, the Turkish food maker, is building a separate management layer in the region to grow a brand it bought in the US. Shipping the product is not enough; someone in that market has to decide, build the team and handle the chains. At your scale, that may be a distributor or a country lead.
What role does Ümran Beba take on as ETİ’s Americas President?
Ümran Beba heads ETİ’s operations in the Americas. Her job is to run the region’s growth strategy, strengthen the organisation, and drive TRUBAR’s development along with new opportunities. She sits on the Global Executive Committee and reports to ETİ Global CEO Ercan Öz.
How does a Turkish food brand like ETİ grow a brand it bought in the US?
It grows it by moving management, not just product. On a US shelf, speed of decision, retailer relationships and team culture decide success. ETİ’s move ties all three to one leader in the region. The scene below is representative, not a real brand.
Which businesses does ETİ’s Americas move affect, and how?
It matters most to Turkish food and snack producers thinking about entering the US in autumn 2026, because it gives them an example of a roadmap. Small producers going in with one product and no local management will meet a stronger competitor in the same retail chains. We follow similar moves on our retail page, where we interpret the retail agenda for you.
Where does the digital side of ETİ’s US growth begin?
It begins on the product page. Amazon is among TRUBAR’s sales channels, and for a food brand in the US the first shop window is often a marketplace listing. An English website, search visibility and retailer sales data then feed the regional team’s decisions.
Why do HR and culture experience matter in ETİ’s regional leadership?
Because growing an acquired brand starts with keeping people together. Beba’s record includes PepsiCo AMENA HR President (CHRO) and Global Chief Diversity Officer (CDO). Aligning two company cultures is the hardest, least visible part of the job.
What should a food brand planning to export like ETİ do this week?
This week, pick one country and one channel, then write down who will make decisions in that market. A distributor, a country representative or a team member all work. Without a name, your export plan is only the hope of an order.
Quick Summary
- Ümran Beba took up the role of Americas President on ETİ’s Global Executive Committee on 6 October 2026 (Perakende.org).
- Beba reports to ETİ Global CEO Ercan Öz and is also responsible for TRUBAR’s development (Perakende.org).
- Beba’s career includes 25 years at PepsiCo and the role of PepsiCo AMENA HR President (Perakende.org).
- ETİ announced on 8 February 2026 that it was buying all of TRUBAR for 173 million dollars (CNBC-e).
- Growing abroad depends less on shipping product and more on building leadership that decides in the market.
Short Glossary
- Global Executive Committee
- Global Executive Committee is the name used for the leadership team that takes top-level decisions in a company operating in several countries.
- Distributor
- Distributor is the term used for the intermediary firm that takes a producer’s goods to retailers in a given market.
- SKU
- SKU is the stock keeping unit used to track each product variant separately in inventory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Next Step
The principle is simple: first name the person who decides in the market, then grow the shelf. If you would like to pin down your target country and channel together, write to us through the consult your expert form.
Sources: Perakende.org, “Ümran Beba, ETİ Global İcra Kurulu’nda Amerika Başkanı görevine atandı” (Ümran Beba appointed Americas President on ETİ’s Global Executive Committee), 7 October 2026 · CNBC-e, ETİ’s TRUBAR acquisition, February 2026 · ETİ, Global Executive Committee
Updated: October 2026
Sık Sorulan Sorular
Beba, a Boğaziçi University Industrial Engineering graduate, has worked across Türkiye, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Her career starts at Colgate-Palmolive and continues for 25 years at PepsiCo, with regional president, general manager and global leadership roles in four countries. Her most recent role is Partner at August Leadership. ETİ lists its senior leadership on its Global Executive Committee pages.
Beba reports to ETİ Global CEO Ercan Öz. According to ETİ’s corporate website, Öz joins the company in 2021, becomes CEO of ETİ Türkiye in March 2023 and ETİ Global CEO in March 2026.
The news does not say whether “Americas” means only the US or North and South America together. Regional revenue and export figures are not given either, so we do not guess at size.
Let’s say your small plant is in Gaziantep. The first container leaves, and the family celebrates. A few months later the distributor calls and says the product is sitting on the shelf. No tastings, no price checks, no second order.
Honestly, the problem is not the product or the first order. It is that nobody is there to bring in the second one. Keeping a product on the shelf takes someone on the ground who speaks the retailer’s language and can decide quickly. ETİ’s appointment of a regional president can be read as closing that same gap at a much larger scale.
ETİ announced on 8 February 2026 that it was buying all of TRUBAR, a US-based plant-based protein bar brand, for 173 million dollars (CNBC-e). According to CNBC-e, the brand generated about 100 million dollars in gross revenue in 2025 and reaches more than 20,000 points of sale. So ETİ is not hunting for shelf space from scratch.
Makers of snacks, bars, nuts and packaged food get a close look at how a Turkish brand heading to the US is structured. Acquisition, then a global CEO, then a regional president: at large scale, that sequence is a roadmap. A small producer can shorten it, but not skip it.
Brands that rely on a distributor with nobody in the market may struggle. According to CNBC-e, TRUBAR sells at Costco, Target, Walmart and Amazon. Sharing that shelf with a brand whose management just got stronger demands faster decisions and a clearer SKU plan.
In the same week, TRUBAR’s arrival on Turkish shelves is also announced, so category management for protein bars may be up for discussion. Logistics, packaging, labelling and certification providers gain work as more producers prepare for the US.
A shopper sees a bar in the store, then looks it up on the phone to check ingredients and reviews. If the product page is weak, the product on the shelf does not sell either. So ingredients, allergens, images and reviews are daily work for a regional team.
Distributors and chain buyers look you up before they meet you. A translated Turkish page is not enough; a site written in the target market’s search language, with clear certificates and contact details, builds trust and quietly wins you the first meeting.
If a retailer shares which product sells in which store, that data tells a regional manager which SKU to expand and which to pull. Without someone to read it, the report just sits in an inbox.
Experience in building teams, keeping talent and making different cultures work together. In a new market, the most expensive mistake is hiring the wrong person.
The news says nothing about TRUBAR’s founding team today, so we will not comment. The general rule is that the buyer protects the customer-facing side of the brand and strengthens the back office. How you build team loyalty at small scale also connects to the question of whether employee perk campaigns pay off.
In the same week, Teknosa also gives HR its own seat in senior management. Next to Teknosa’s CTO and CHRO appointments, the pattern is clear: in retail and food, people management now sits at the centre of growth.
“Selling to the US” is not a target. “This product, in this chain, in this state” is a target.
Name someone who meets buyers, checks shelves and brings problems to you the same day, even part-time. What matters is that someone owns the second order.
Prepare ingredient, allergen, nutrition and certification documents in English. Food and customs rules vary by country. Verify with the official source; this is not legal or financial advice. We run the process from market selection to document preparation with producers through our foreign trade consultancy work.
No. The news contains no revenue or export figures for ETİ in the Americas. The figures CNBC-e gives for TRUBAR belong to that brand alone.
You need an owner, not a title. The first step is naming one person or distributor partner who speaks for you in the market, watches the shelf and follows up on the second order.
The documents depend on the product group and the destination. Prepare ingredient, allergen, nutrition and certification information, and verify the current rules with the official source.