Finsbury Food Group has appointed Neil Rockliff as its group product and innovation director.
The creation of this role forms part of Finsbury’s strategy to invest further in its innovation capabilities, strengthen strategic alignment with customers, and ensure product development plays a starring role in the business’s future direction.
Rockliff joins the business from Samworth Brothers, where he worked within innovation for almost a decade. Prior to that he was head of insight and innovation at Greencore - a position he climbed to over the course of 17 years and various NPD roles at the manufacturer.
Finsbury has said this new role will not only establish a stronger innovation pipeline, but is intended to help steer investment decisions. By aligning innovation strategy with long-term investment planning, it is aiming to ensure its manufacturing capabilities develop in line with future category growth rather than just current demand.
“When I met with the leadership team, it was immediately clear there is real ambition within Finsbury, ambition for quality and ambition for growth,” said Rockliff on his new position.
“The diversity of Finsbury’s product and customer mix creates huge opportunities from an innovation perspective. There’s real scope to evolve categories and unlock new areas of growth.”
Rockliff will report into Graeme Clark, chief commercial officer, and will work alongside Ben Kisby, group category and insight director, to analyse and leverage data and insights to build informed long term propositions.
“When innovation is grounded in insight, commercially viable and compelling enough for consumers to repeat purchase, you’ve hit the sweet spot,” continued Rockliff.
“Achieving this means investing more time at the front end to answer the ‘so what’ behind every new product. While concept-to-launch timelines are shortening and the pace of change is accelerating, working alongside a team that understands both manufacturing capability and technical parameters allows you to push boundaries and bring exciting products to market.”
Clark added: “A core focus of Neil’s role will be to ensure Finsbury’s innovation approach is both proactive and strategically aligned. By strengthening the connection between insight, category strategy and development, Finsbury’s new product propositions will be grounded in robust consumer understanding while delivering commercial impact.”
