The appointment of Denis Hennequin and Simon Burke – announced this week (December 5) – reflected their wealth of senior management experience in the food and retail sectors, said the company.
With over 30 years’ experience in the retail and food sectors, Burke was appointed ceo of Virgin Retail UK in 1998.
In 1999, Burke was appointed chairman and chief executive of toy retailer Hamleys, where he completed a successful restructuring and subsequent sale of the company.
Successful restructuring
Burke left Hamleys in 2003 to specialise in value creation roles, sitting on the boards of several quoted companies – including Mitchells & Butlers and Majestic Wine – as well as a number of privately-owned and private-equity backed companies.
He is currently a non-executive director of the Co-operative Group and the British Broadcasting Corporation. He is also chairman of The Light Cinemas (Holdings) and garden centre business Blue Diamond.
Hennequin has held leadership positions in a number of companies, spending most of his career with fast food chain McDonalds in senior financial and operational roles.
From July 2005 to November 30 2010 he served as president of McDonalds Europe – the first non-American to hold the role since the company entered the continent in 1971.
He joined hotel group Accor in 2011 as chairman and ceo, before leaving 2013. Hennequin is currently a non-executive director of Eurostar International, John Lewis Partnership and SSP Group.
‘Delighted to welcome’
Bakkavor group chairman Lydur Gudmundsson said: “We are delighted to welcome Denis and Simon to Bakkavor.
“As we continue to deliver against our successful strategy and, in particular, pursue further growth in the UK and internationally, both Denis and Simon bring invaluable new skills to our board.”
The appointments come after Bakkavor announced it was recruiting 310 people for factory production and management roles in Lincolnshire, after seeing increased demand from its customers.
Meanwhile, you can check out the biggest food and drink industry appointments from last month in our photogallery of people moving to new jobs here.