Natural kids' food brand Little Dish has strengthened its management team by creating a head of marketing post and appointing Fresh & Wild founder Bryan Meehan to the board.

Jane Hunter, previously European marketing director at Gallo Family Vineyards and former global marketing director for Diageo's J&B Whisky, has been recruited following a £1.5m investment in the brand by US private equity fund Greenmont Capital, of which Meehan is a partner. She starts the job this week.

"Our marketing will be more sophisticated as Jane has a clear understanding of what people want," said founder and MD Hillary Graves, who set up the business two years ago. "She'll bring a new level of expertise in reaching people in-store and sampling."

Meehan, who also founded Nude Skincare, will sit on the board with Innocent Smoothies co-founder Adam Balon as a non-executive director. "I started Fresh & Wild from scratch so I can pass on my experience to Hillary," said Meehan.

"As a non-executive, I can advise on pricing, speed of roll out, packaging designs, sourcing ingredients and budgeting. All too often private equity companies get too involved, but we won't on a day-to-day basis."

Little Dish has also signed up former Unilever account manager Tom Benton as commercial manager. His experience gained from Unilever's graduate programme will mean he can improve data analysis and measure sales in individual stores, said Graves.

The brand is currently listed in Waitrose, Ocado, Sainsbury's and Tesco, with plans for a wider roll out to Asda and Morrisons.

"As we develop our systems, we'll have a better understanding of what works in each store and give retailers more confidence that we can invest at store level," Graves added.

Product news p63

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