As you will read elsewhere Ian Stone stepped into the role of President and Chair of the Board. Also, at this year’s AGM we saw a number of new members elected to the BFFF non-executive Board. We are also delighted to welcome onto the Board Jose Neto of Cargill, who kindly agreed to be co-opted earlier in the year but has now become a full board member. Jose has already played an active role on the board and will bring a wealth of International experience. We also have a further two new board members, Steve Challouma General Manager of Nomad UK and Richard Pike Technical and Sustainability Director of Cook.

During the last 12 months Nick Redford stepped down from the board when he left Caterforce in January, and at the AGM last week Nigel Broadhurst and Wayne Hudson also left the board. I would like to extend my thanks to Nick, Nigel and Wayne for their support to myself and the Federation over many years, their input has been greatly appreciated.

Ian Stone is Chief Commercial Officer of leading meals provider apetito. He has been with apetito since 2003 having previously held senior positions with Nestle and Pritchitt Foods.

Ian has been involved with the BFFF Board since 2013 and Vice Chairman for the past year. He is a passionate supporter and advocate for the benefits of frozen food.

Ian comments:

‘‘2021 is likely to be a tough year for our industry, and I am excited to be able to support and help our members navigate what promises to be a rocky path ahead.

Let’s not forget what a fantastic industry, frozen food actually is….  It is a dynamic, innovative sector that I am certain will continue to develop both its profile and importance within the retail and out of home settings’’

Steve Challouma is the General Manager of Birds Eye UK, the leading branded business in UK Frozen Foods, encompassing the Birds Eye, Aunt Bessie’s and Goodfella’s brands. He has spent nearly 25 years in the Frozen Food industry in a range of commercial roles spanning sales, marketing and category management, beginning his career at Unilever.

He is a passionate advocate of frozen food and its potential for reducing food waste – and is a supporter of key sustainability initiatives such as the Marine Stewardship Council, the UK Plastics Pact and the Veg Power programme to encourage children to eat more vegetables.

Quote: “I am delighted to be joining the BFFF Board during such a pivotal era in the evolution of the frozen food category. I am looking forward to working with the team to deliver further progress and realise the full potential of the industry.”

Jose brings to the board his passion for the frozen food Industry and over 20 years’ experience in the sector, with extensive international experience in Management, Operations and Sales positions, gained from leadership experiences on multinational companies Jose worked for across the globe.

Prior joining Cargill Protein Europe in 2016, Jose had leadership and management roles in Europe, Australia and Brazil.

Jose holds an MBA from Westminster University in London, a post-graduation in Marketing from TAFE Australia and a Business graduation.

Proud father of 2 boys, Jose enjoys spending time with family, swimming and cooking a Rib Eye steak on the BBQ.

I have been lucky enough to spend most of my working career of over 30 years working within the food industry. I have enjoyed wide-ranging product experience and have also had the opportunity to work within family businesses, multinational manufacturers and retailers and for the last 13 years of my career I have been working as the Technical and Sustainability Director for COOK.

Whilst I have been at COOK the business has grown from £15 to +£80 Million annual turnover, with a large element of this growth coming from our retail channel, which has seen our shop estate grow from 20 to 90 shops. In addition to our financial growth, our core purpose for why and how we run the business has gone from strength to strength and we became a founding member of the UK bcorp community.

I have led our efforts on improving our ingredient provenance through improving animal welfare and developing relationships with local growers along with driving change in our environmental performance, recently setting science based targets and our goal to be net zero by 2030.

I’m really pleased to be joining the board of the BFFF at a time when the benefits of frozen food are really coming to the fore and look forward to helping to support our industry wherever I can.