Senior figures on the move in food and drink manufacturing

Lupa Foods announces new chief executive​

UK-based ingredients importer and distributor Lupa Foods has announced the appointment of Manish Mandavia as its new chief executive.

Specialising in Italian food, Lupa supplies more than 600 products and ingredients to businesses throughout the food and drink manufacturing industry. It also offers services such as new product development, technical support, procurement and logistics.

Mandavia has served as the firm's chief operating officer since 2019 and played a key role in guiding Lupa through the Covid disruption. Prior to joining the business in 2009 as finance director, Mandavia worked for consultancy firm EY.

Addressing the step up to chief executive, Mandavia thanked the Lupa board for offering him such an opportunity at a “truly great company​”.

“Our biggest asset is our people who are talented, hard-working, and passionate about the products that we supply​,” he said. “It will be an honour to lead the team and to continue to deliver for our customers, suppliers, and shareholders​."

Meanwhile, Lupa executive chairman Peter Crystal said that the board was confident that Mandavia would allow the business to “fulfil its potential as a leading partner to the food industry”.​

"We're more than just an importer and distributor; we're dedicated to innovation and a customer-centric approach​,” Crystal explained.

"Our 120 years of experience serves as the foundation for our customers' success​."

First full-time employee joins fiin

The Food Industry Intelligence Network (fiin) has hired Sophie Lawrence as its first full-time employee, in addition to adding Saskia van Ruth as an advisor to the board.

As programme manager, Lawrence will be tasked with ensuring that fiin provides its growing membership with the best insights for combatting food fraud, while also increasing the provision of resources. Lawrence has a breadth of experience in academia and possesses a master’s degree in food policy from City University, while she has also just submitted her PhD thesis to Queens University Belfast, which is focused on the prevalence and the situational susceptibility of seafood supply chains to food fraud.

Additionally, Lawrence has worked in intelligence for the Food Standards Agency’s National Food Crime Unit, an experience that provided her with direct exposure to the key issues facing the food and drink industry.

Meanwhile, van Ruth will be advising the fiin board on how it can continue to ensure food integrity through a collaborative and targeted approach to supply chain assurance. As professor of Food Supply Chain Integrity at University College Dublin in the School of Agriculture and Food Science, van Ruth has a wealth of experience in food authenticity and integrity issues with a particular interest in the prevention and comprehension of food fraud.

Fiin board member and group technical and sustainability director at ABP Food Group, Dean Holroyd, said that the organisation was happy to welcome the new team members on board and keen to see what value they could bring to the membership.

“As fiin’s membership continues to grow, the organisation must continue to be a useful resource for members, and appointing its first full-time employee will help to increase the organisation’s value​,” Holroyd added.

HarvestEye hires new general manager

Crop insights tool HarvestEye has named Harry Tinson as its new general manager.

Arriving from Community Maintenance Service (CMS), Tinson brings with him experience in global B2B sales from across the engineering and transport sectors. Previously, he was charged with overseeing JCB’s international network of 750 aftermarket dealers, before taking up a role with at fleet support service provider AllServiceOne as sales director.

Able to be fitted to harvesting or grading equipment, HarvestEye is designed to deliver whole-field visibility on the size, shape and variability of crops as they are lifted. Working for HarvestEye, Tinson will be responsible for continued innovation within the insights technology space, with a focus on enhancing grower experience and developing the firm’s presence domestically and around the world.

Speaking after taking up the new role, Tinson described the move as an opportunity to establish HarvestEye as an “industry leader for crop insights systems worldwide​”.

"HarvestEye is dedicated to advancing the agri-tech sector and, following a tremendous six years since the company launched, I can see it has phenomenal potential to accelerate its growth even further,” ​he continued.

“With HarvestEye having started to establish significant presence in a selection of global markets, particularly in Western Europe and through its partnership with Elders in Australia, I’m looking to spot opportunities where we can make the biggest impact to support more customers on mass​.”

Meanwhile, the firm’s managing director Vidyanath (Vee) Gururajan added: “Harry brings a wealth of global sales expertise from highly respectable roles in similar industries, and we are delighted to bolster our leadership team with his appointment.​

“Having an understanding of the territories where we are looking to grow, such as North America and Europe, will play a vital role in our day-to-day operations to make sure we can achieve our ambitious growth plans. We want to reach more growers and packers, as they face increasing challenges to maximise profit from their produce, and Harry will be key to establishing this network.”​

In other news, Food Manufacture spoke to Krispy Kreme about the brand's 20-year anniversary in the UK​​.