Tyler Siira took the helm as President of Southern Champion Tray (SCT) on July 1, 2026, stepping up from his role as the company's Chief Financial Officer. Brian Hunt, who previously held the president title, remains in place as CEO — a dual-leadership structure the Chattanooga-based packaging manufacturer says is designed to accelerate growth while preserving the values of its nearly 100-year operating history.
Leadership Background
Siira brings a rare mix of finance, manufacturing, and entrepreneurship to the role. Before joining SCT as CFO, he served as Vice President and Treasurer of Unum Group and as Owner and President of DCI Manufacturing. He holds a BS in Accounting from Bryan College and an MBA from the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, Spain — a background that positions him to manage both the operational complexity of a multi-plant packaging operation and the capital discipline that larger foodservice operator accounts increasingly demand from supply-chain partners.
SCT's roughly 950 team members are spread across facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Fairfield, Ohio; and Mansfield, Texas, giving the company a footprint capable of serving prep-and-storage buyers and foodservice distributors across North America, including Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.
What It Means for Foodservice Buyers
For operators, dealers, and consultants sourcing disposable packaging for back-of-house and front-of-house use, SCT is a fixture in the bakery, foodservice, institutional, and retail packaging markets. The company's trays, boxes, and related ware-handling products move through the same distribution channels that supply ware-handling consumables to commercial kitchens — making leadership continuity and operational scale a practical concern for equipment specifiers who bundle packaging with broader kitchen buildout or commissary kitchen programs.
Siira's promotion to President, paired with Hunt's continued oversight as CEO, signals SCT intends to maintain the customer-service emphasis that has defined the family-owned company since its 1927 founding while building capacity to compete for larger national and regional foodservice accounts. Ghost kitchen and commissary kitchen growth — both of which require high-volume, standardized packaging procurement — represents a natural expansion opportunity for a supplier with SCT's geographic spread and product breadth.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
