Meadow Foods appoints new chairman
Meadow Foods, the UK’s largest independently owned dairy group supplying added-value ingredients to the food industry, announces the appointment of Per Harkjaer as chairman. Per replaces Simon Chantler who will remain on the board as a non executive director and remains a substantial shareholder.
Simon Chantler founded Meadow Foods in 1992 and over the last 28 years has held the position of managing director, executive chairman and latterly non-executive chairman. Simon has overseen the business from a start up to an ingredients manufacturer operating across 4 sites and turning over £450m. He will continue as an active board member and the largest individual shareholder in the business.
Per is a hugely experienced chairman with more than 20 years of executive level experience in the global foods and drinks industry. His experience includes holding the position of Group CEO at United Coffee and Findus Group as well as time spent in leadership roles at Toms Group and Unigate PLC.
As well as senior executive roles, Per is currenty vice chairman of Caffitaly and chairman of Scandanavian businesses Løgimose Meyers and Scandic Standard. Both as an executive and board member, Per has worked extensively with private equity partners to build and grow the businesses in which he has been involved.
Simon Chantler comments: “We are delighted to welcome Per to the Meadow Foods Board. He brings a wealth of complementary expertise in food, manufacturing and innovation, as well as a proven ability to deliver growth for global food businesses. We are excited by this next phase in the company’s development as we continue to create new opportunities for our producer partners, customers and employees.”
Chantler will assume the role of a non executive director, and will continue to work closely with the rest of the Meadow Foods board and management team in delivering Meadow Foods’ continued strategy of growing the business through both organic expansion and acquisitions.
Per Harkjaer, comments: “Meadow Foods has matured as a business significantly in recent years and I’m excited to be joining the board and to support their ambitions for continued growth.”
The appointment comes following the strategic investment from Exponent into Meadow Foods in August 2018. Since then, the business has acquired leading inclusion business Nimbus Foods, Roil Foods and Fayrefield Liquid and has made a £4m investment in new plant based food manufacturing capabilities.
Meadow Foods is an award winning company that operates from four BRC AA accredited sites in Chester, Peterborough, Holme-on-Spalding Moor and Dolgellau where it manufactures value added ingredients 7 days a week for some of the UK’s best known food manufacturers. The company currently employs more than 450 people and handles in excess of 500 million litres of milk each year direct from its network of dedicated milk producers across the UK.