Currently chair of Crown Commercial Services, 58 year-old Kralingen served 35 years at SABMiller in a number of senior management roles, including group director of integrated supply and marketing director. His appointment is effective from September 1.
Praising his supply chain and production credentials, Morrisons’ chairman Andrew Higginson said: “I am delighted to welcome Tony. He brings his very broad experience in the drinks industry across a number of disciplines including human resources, marketing, supply chain and manufacturing. He will be an important addition to our board.”
‘Very broad experience in the drinks industry’
Kralingen was also chairman and ceo of the SABMiller-owned Plzensky Prazdroj brewery in the Czech Republic and md of South African Breweries – a subsidiary of SABMiller.
Commenting on his appointment, he said: “I am very excited about joining Morrisons. I look forward to working with the board and the executive team to contribute to the continued revival of this great British company.”
There have been a number of high profile appointments made by the food and drink industry in the past month.
McVitie’s owner Pladis appointed Anthoula Madden to the newly created role of chief digital officer at the end of June, in charge of driving the company’s update of its digital systems and operating model.
Digital operations
Prior to joining Pladis, Madden was a partner at business consultancy PwC, where she led the consumer sector and Europe, Middle East and Africa digital operations.
This week saw FoodDrinkEurope, Europe’s food and drink manufacturers’ organisation, elect Mondelēz vice president Hubert Weber as its new president.
Weber has been a member of FoodDrinkEurope’s board since September 2013 and has contributed to the organisation on a number of health and nutrition issues.
Meanwhile, in May, Higginson was appointed president of charity GroceryAid, replacing former president Andrew Moore – Asda’s chief merchandising officer.