Our Strategy

Three things: the people, the end market, and the opportunity. The people I met during my time working for Design Group in an advisory role and since are exceptional – smart, passionate, and genuinely committed to the business. For me, that has always been the number one reason to work for a company. If you don’t look forward to walking through the door every morning, nothing else matters. Then there’s the end market, we create products that bring joy to people’s lives, and that’s a wonderful thing to be part of. And finally, the opportunity. I can see what this company can become. It has so much potential and I find that incredibly exciting.

I started my career at Procter & Gamble, where I spent 14 formative years across marketing, sales, and general management. From there I moved to Bain & Company, deliberately joining below Partner level because I wanted to unlearn old habits and absorb new ways of thinking. I then spent ten years at Unilever, leading sales and customer strategy across Europe and globally, before becoming CEO of Partner in Pet Food, a private business that we transformed from an Eastern European private-label player into a pan-European pet food leader. We tripled the company’s value in four years before a successful exit in 2024. Each of those experiences taught me something different, but the thread running through all of them is people – building great teams and giving them the space to do brilliant things.

I always come back to three values. The first is respect: treat others the way you would want to be treated, always. The second is passion: I love working with people who love what they do and bring genuine energy to it. And the third is integrity. Warren Buffett once said that when looking for people to hire “you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you”. I couldn’t agree more. If you get the people piece right, almost everything else follows.

In terms of how I lead, I believe fundamentally in a growth mindset – no matter how successful you are, you should never stop learning. You have to be willing to reinvent yourself constantly. I also believe in transparency, trust, and truth. I sometimes say I’m a trust freak, not a control freak. I put the right people in place and let them run. And one thing I feel strongly about is calling out the unpleasant truth. It’s always easy to share good news, but when you share bad news openly, the burden is split. That kind of honesty builds real trust, and real trust is what high-performing companies are built on.

The quality of the people is high, their love for the category is infectious and their professionalism when it comes to manufacturing our products is in the champions league. This company has the foundations in place to become a front runner in the industry in terms of innovation and profitable growth. And while doing so, we will ensure that we increase our employee engagement year-on-year while delivering on our sustainability promises. Healthy results can only be achieved with healthy people in a healthy environment.

What struck me from the outset is that this is a business with real strengths: great people, strong customer relationships, and genuine expertise in an end market that matters to millions of people. The hard work of simplifying and focusing the business has been done to a large extent, and the foundations are in place. My job is to build on that. I see a business that can grow by doing more of what it already does well and by making sure we’re commercially sharp in everything we do. The market is exciting, the team is talented, and the opportunity is there. I’m genuinely looking forward to getting to know everyone and to an exciting time together, where we have fun, we grow, and we create wonderful results.

I’m a morning person. Five days a week I’m up early to run or work out before the day begins. It gives me energy, clears my head, and sets the tone for everything that follows. I’m also a big reader; I always have a book on the go. But above all, it’s family. My wife and our two children are what motivates everything I do. They keep me grounded and remind me what really matters.