TORONTO — Fast-casual pizza restaurant turned omnichannel consumer packaged goods company General Assembly Holdings Ltd. (GA Pizza) has hired Hormis Tharakan as chief operating officer.

Prior to joining GA Pizza, Tharakan was with Nature’s Path Foods, most recently as associate vice president of manufacturing. Earlier, he was associate vice president of supply chain, director of supply chain, senior manager of materials and materials manager. Before Nature’s Path he was director of purchasing of Bosley’s/Pet Value. He also was a senior price analyst and merchandise manager at Best Buy and category manager at Taymor Industries.

“I am thrilled to have Hormis join our team,” said Ali Khan Lalani, founder and chief executive officer of GA Pizza. “He will be a big asset to our company, particularly significant at this point in time, as we scale our production and distribution model. Hormis brings a wealth of experience in supply chain management and manufacturing.”

GA Pizza recently secured funds that allowed the company to secure a wholly owned master production facility and increase production to 5,000 units per day by the second quarter of 2021. GA Pizza said it hopes to increase output to 10,000 units per day by the third quarter of 2021, which would allow for significant growth of the company’s “GA Pizza Club” subscription membership base and scaling of the company’s grocery sales across Canada. In addition to expansion plans, GA Pizza is working to offer more plant-based products through a partnership with Impossible Foods.