Helen Watts joins Sofina as chief people officer following an 18-year career with McCain Foods across multiple senior people roles.
During her time with the business, Watts played a major role in building organisational capability to drive performance and developing employee value propositions to attract and retain talent.
James Pirie is Sofina’s new chief commercial officer and joins the business after 14 years in senior commercial and operational roles with Arla.
Sustainable supply chains
Pirie brings with him a wealth of experience in delivering category growth, sustainable supply chain solutions from farm to shelf and developing long term customer partnerships.
Finally, Stuart Herd – also formerly of McCain Foods, joins Sofina as chief growth officer. During his 20-year career with McCain, Herd has demonstrated a proven track record on customer focus, category leadership and commercial excellence across the retail, foodservice and QSR channels.
Commenting on the new hires, Sofina CEO Ash Amirahmadi said: “These appointments mark an exciting step forward for Sofina Foods Europe as we strengthen our leadership team.
“To attract the calibre of leadership that Helen, James and Stuart bring underlines the scale of our ambition. Together they bring a wealth of experience and expertise that will be instrumental in driving our objectives and helping us achieve our ambitious vision to be the most successful food company in the world.”
Sofina’s operating base
Headquartered in Malton, North Yorkshire, Sofina Foods Europe operates 21 manufacturing sites across the UK, Ireland, Germany, and France, and employs approximately 8,000 people.
As well as the production of own label muti-protein products, Sofina’s portfolio of brands includes Young’s Seafood, Greenland Seafood, Carroll’s of Tullamore and Cookstown.
Meanwhile, Lidl has announced the appointment of its new regional managing director for Northern Ireland.
Gordon Cruikshanks took up the role on 1 March, having previously served as Lidl NI’s sales operations director where he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the sales team as well as wider growth and development opportunities.
