Scottish wholesaler Dunns Food and Drinks has hired former Braehead Foods commercial director Ed Faber as its new head of sales.
It said the appointment of Faber, who has also worked at Unilever, was a key part of Dunns’ strategy to “significantly step up” its sales operation.
He will be focusing on growing the business’ food offering as the industry recovers from the pandemic, it said.
“The opportunity to drive the evolution of Dunns Food and Drinks’ food operation really excites me,” said Faber. ”There is a massive amount of experience internally – and I want to add some more flair to the food side of the business.
“I expect the industry to recover to pre-pandemic levels within 12 months, but we are essentially facing three crises within a few years – the Covid pandemic, Brexit, and the Ukraine war, each hitting the industry in different ways.
“It’s had a catastrophic effect on our industry, which is slowly picking itself back up but is still far from where it needs to be. There is hesitancy to ask consumers en masse to return to eating out of home, as certain segments of the marketplace are still nervous to be in crowded indoor spaces.
“From a competition perspective, there are wholesalers who are no longer there, so that creates a more open field. What we are going to try and do is help operators get back on their feet, particularly those who want to serve food outdoors. We’ve had an increase in recent enquiries from operators looking to serve food outdoors, particularly casually. We are looking at how we can create innovative food options that support that industry shift.”
Faber has spent a total of 35 years working in the food and drink industry, including almost 15 years heading up Scotland and Northern Ireland foodservice sales at US multinational Bestfoods, which included taking on the Republic of Ireland operation following its global merger with Unilever in 2000.
He left Unilever, where he was a regional sales manager, for Braehead Foods in 2014, where he moved from national account controller to being appointed to the board as commercial director.
Dunns Food and Drinks operations director Julie Dunn said: “This is an important appointment and a key element in our strategy to ramp up our food operation. Ed is one of the best in the business and joins an already fantastic team.
“Ed has hit the ground running and has already set the wheels in motion on initiatives that will be crucial to the next stages of Dunns’ development.”
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