Andersons Appoints Lombardi As New Chief Information Officer

The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) has announced the appointment of Anthony Lombardi as its new Chief Information Officer. Lombardi will report to John Granato, the current Chief Financial Officer of the company.

Before joining Andersons, Lombardi served as the Vice President of Global Business Services & Chief Information Officer for Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (NYSE:AWI) . His extensive background in large systems implementation and strategy development will help in developing strong technical and operational teams for Andersons.

Andersons’ core strategy is to continue growing higher-margin specialty product sales at a rate faster than basic commodity nutrients. The company expects the second half of 2016 to significantly improve from the first half.

Andersons has launched an initiative to reduce annual costs by more than $10 million over the next two years. During the first quarter, it cut executive positions in corporate as well as selected roles in its business units. In addition, the company has a number of productivity, sourcing and continuous improvement projects, which should drive growth.

However, the combination of a weak demand for exports and lack of farmers selling commercial grains caused basis levels to trade sideways, curbing opportunities significantly to generate margins. The company anticipates these conditions to persist through the rest of the year.

Andersons currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A couple of better-ranked stocks in the broader basic materials sector include Cosan Limited (NYSE:CZZ) and Coeur Mining, Inc. (NYSE:CDE) , both carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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