Young’s owner Sofina strengthens leadership team with three senior appointments

Young’s Seafood and Karro Food Group owner Sofina Foods Europe has announced the appointment of three new senior executives as part of a move to strengthen its leadership team.

Helen Watts joins Sofina as chief people officer, following a “distinguished career” with McCain Foods, spanning 18 years in multiple senior people roles, Sofina said.

She had a track record of “building organisational capability to drive performance and developing employee value propositions to attract the retain the best talent”.

James Pirie joins Sofina as chief commercial officer after 14 years in senior commercial and operational roles with Arla, where he gained extensive experience in delivering category growth, sustainable supply chain solutions from farm to shelf, and developing long term customer partnerships.

Finally, Stuart Herd has joined the supplier in the newly created role of chief growth officer.

Like Watts, he previously worked at McCain over a 20-year period, bringing a “wealth of experience winning with customers and transforming category growth around the world”.

Herd’s “proven track record on customer focus, category leadership and commercial excellence across the retail, foodservice and QSR channels will be fundamental to accelerating Sofina’s growth agenda”, the supplier added.

The three appointments were part of Sofina’s “continued commitment to driving growth, innovation, and operational excellence across its European operations”, it said – reinforcing its “bold strategic vision of becoming the most successful food company in the world”.

The trio “mark an exciting step forward for Sofina Foods Europe as we strengthen our leadership team”, said CEO Ash Amirahmadi.

“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.”