New Managing Director for Ornua Foods UK

New Managing Director for Ornua Foods UK
Simon Ball, New MD

Ornua Foods UK – the supplier of retail packed cheese brand Pilgrims Choice cheddar, has announced Simon Ball as its new managing director. Simon Ball has extensive food manufacturing experience – he joins Ornua from Greencore, where he was business unit director at its dedicated Marks and Spencer production site in Northampton.

Prior to Greencore, Ball held a number of senior management roles, including the position of head of trading for fresh produce and horticulture at Marks and Spencer, managing director of a division of IPL Ltd and managing director of two divisions of the William Jackson Food Group.

He said: “Given the very challenging market environment for all in food and drink, it is clearly more important than ever for Ornua to build on its established reputation of delivering best-in-class efficiencies, customer service, and category expertise to our retail customers.

“I am confident we have the key fundamentals in place to enhance our position and accelerate sustainable growth, namely great people, products, partners, and state-of-the-art processing facilities.

“As such, I’m looking forward to working with our team here in Leek, and the wider Ornua team, to grow and develop the business further.”

Ball takes over the position from Bill Hunter, who has taken on the role of finance director for Ornua’s global foods division.