BRANSTON - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Fresh Managing Director
Andrew Fulcher joined the Branston team as Fresh Managing Director in November 2023, bringing with him a wealth of potato and wider industry knowledge. He began his career in potatoes, working for MBM and QV Foods for over almost two decades. Since then, he has operated in a number of senior leadership operational and procurement roles, including Operations Director for Flamingo Produce and Supply Chain Director of Keelings.
Andrew will be instrumental in driving the business unit level focus and aligning the company's Fresh operations at all sites.
Job Titles:
- Technical Director
- Interim Head of Technical for Prepared
Dominic van Zwanenberg joined Branston in 2022 as Interim Head of Technical for Prepared foods. He has over 35 years in the food industry, working in corporate, SME and family-run businesses and having extensive experience in senior Technical roles. This includes 17 years of successful interim and consultancy projects delivered across multiple added-value chilled and ambient food industry categories, including new builds, strategic projects, change management and customer focused strategy development.
In November 2023, Dominic was promoted to the Exec Board as Group Technical Director. He is responsible for food safety, compliance, and quality from when raw material arrives on site through to finished products for potatoes, sweet potatoes, prepared foods and protein. Dominic is our lead interface to all customers from a Technical perspective.
Gareth has been working in food factories since he was 18. After graduating from Bristol Business School, he spent a further 13 years in food businesses, getting a good grounding in a range of operational and technical management roles.
He joined the Branston team as General Manager of the Prepared foods division in 2022, bringing with him extensive knowledge of both fresh and ready-to-eat food manufacturing. Gareth is responsible for day-to-day running of the Prepared foods and Prepared Ingredients factories, balancing safety, cost, service and people management, as well as longer-term business initiatives.
Prior to joining Branston, Jim worked in KPMG's advisory function in both mergers and acquisitions and restructuring roles. In his 13 years at KPMG, he worked on numerous UK and cross-border transactions for both private and listed businesses.
Jim joined Branston in January 2015 as Strategic Planning Director to specifically manage the commercial interface with customers and the development of our associated operating model. In November 2015 Jim became CFO for the business and was promoted to the Main Board.
In November 2022 he was promoted to CEO. He is responsible for leading the strategic sustainable growth of the business as we continue to develop the most resilient, consumer focussed and sustainable fresh and added value potato supply chain in the UK.
In addition to his Branston role, Jim also sits on the Agritech Boards of B-hive Innovations Ltd, HarvestEye Ltd and Root Extracts Ltd.
Job Titles:
- CFO
- in 2013 As a Commercial Accountant
Jo Hill joined Branston in 2013 as a Commercial Accountant, having worked for 15 years in the finance teams of the food sector with previous roles at Youngs and Noble Foods.
She worked her way up in the Finance team, as it expanded more into the realms of business modelling and capacity planning, working ever more closely with key customer teams. In December 2019 she was promoted from Head of Finance and Planning into the new role of Planning Director, responsible for driving supply chain efficiencies. In November 2022 she was promoted to CFO for the business. She also oversees IT and major CapEx projects.
Jonathan has a wealth of experience in the food sector, having performed operational and management roles at Kerry Foods Limited, QV Foods Limited, Brake Bros and Westaway Sausages Limited across a period spanning over twenty years.
Jonathan joined the company as General Manager in September 2017. He is responsible for the day to day operation of all aspects of the South West site, as well as short and long term planning, procurement, quality and health & safety programmes.
Kevin was brought up on a potato farm and he worked on the farm at weekends, grading potatoes and driving tractors from an early age. He started working for Stokes Bomford Potatoes in 1987 as a tractor/forklift driver, then moved to AR Scott in 1989.
In 1990 he joined the team at the Scotland site, when it was still WCF Potatoes, and by 1999 he had been promoted from Forklift Driver to Team Leader, then Site Manager. He took over as General Manager of the Scotland site in 2015.
Job Titles:
- Commercial Manager
- National Account Manager
- Sales & Marketing Director
Lucia joined Branston as national account manager in 2014, having begun her food career in Bakkavor Desserts division in 2008 looking after various customers.
Lucia was promoted to the new role of commercial manager in 2018 a role which saw her taking wider responsibility across both the fresh and prepared divisions. In 2020 she joined the Exec board as sales & marketing director. Lucia heads up the team comprising Commercial, Category, NPD and Marketing functions ensuring that customer needs are fully supported across all these areas and is instrumental in developing new and existing customer relationships.
Mark Willcox joined Branston in January 2003 following the successful implementation of Lean Manufacturing at our Lincoln site by McKinsey & Company, where Mark was a Manager. Having rolled out 'Lean', he spearheaded a number of other strategic initiatives, including founding our Prepared Foods division, reducing our carbon footprint and additional commercial developments.
In Mark's role as Agronomy Director, he is responsible for food safety, compliance and quality from field to factory for potatoes and sweet potatoes. He oversees our Seed division as well as our variety development programme, including a major project to refine our range based on the best varieties for specific usage. In addition, he covers our sustainability initiatives, as we work towards achieving Net Zero by 2035. Mark is also a director of APS Biocontrol Ltd, an innovative biocontrol business based in Scotland.
Richard Clark - Chief Commercial Officer
Richard joined Branston from the family farm in 1989 as a Buyer and has been with us, progressing through the ranks, ever since. Richard is responsible for our group-wide raw material procurement strategy, making sure that we satisfy all customer demands 52 weeks of the year. He also oversees our own farming enterprise, and is responsible for external non-retail sales, including processing and all other trading activities, to ensure that we maximise the value of the crop from our supply base.
Simon joined Branston in 1996 as Production Manager and a year later relocated to Somerset to manage our newly acquired site in the South West. In 2001, he moved back to Lincoln, completed a Masters in Human Resources Management and took on responsibility for Human Resources & Logistics for the whole business. Simon holds the Certificate of Professional Competence for Transport Operations for the Lincoln and South West sites. He is also a holder of a NEBOSH National Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety, and is the appointed person taking group-wide responsibility for Health & Safety.
Tanya joined the Branston team as General Manager in May 2024, bringing with her over 20 years' experience of working in Fresh Produce. Having initially started in a Production role as a stop gap, she found that she really enjoyed the challenge and the quest for continuous improvement. From Production, she moved into Operational management, then after gaining some procurement and technical experience has spent the latter years of her career in the broader remit of a General Manager.
As General Manager of Fresh at the Lincoln site, Tanya brings a strong focus on people, quality and service as she leads the team through the next phase of ambitious business growth.
Tom re-joined the Branston team as General Manager of the new Protein extraction facility in 2023. He initially joined Branston back in 2013 on the graduate programme, completing placements in Technical and Finance before moving into Operations, being promoted to managing Site Services, then Raw Materials Operations.
He has undertaken a number of roles, at Branston and elsewhere, to build his expertise in Production and Operations Management. This has prepared him to return at a very exciting time for the business. Tom is investing his valuable experience of commissioning new facilities as Branston Protein, which has taken many years of research and development, begins factory scale production. He will be working with a highly skilled team to optimise the technology in order to convert large volumes of a low value by-product into high quality functional protein to meet customers' exacting specifications.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director of the Prepared Foods Division
- Prepared Managing Director
Tom Wykes joined Branston as Managing Director of the Prepared foods division in May 2022, bringing with him 29 years' experience in the food industry. A graduate in Food Technology, Tom has a wealth of experience from a range of food companies in the UK, Spain and Holland.
Tom is passionate about Fresh Produce and loves the fast pace and the challenges of dealing with natural variability in the raw material. He has a keen focus on empowering his team and building resilience in order to implement Lean manufacturing techniques and continue to drive our ambitious growth plans for the Prepared business.