British food manufacturer Samworth Brothers has appointed Simon Wookey as CEO ahead of Hugo Mahoney’s departure.
Current CEO Hugo Mahoney will leave Samworth Brothers to “pursue other opportunities”. Current chief commercial officer Simon Wookey will be appointed to the chief executive role from 1st July 2024 after a transition period.
Wookey will enter the role with 35 years of experience in the food industry. He joined Samworth Brother as a group executive board director in January 2019, serving most recently as group chief commercial officer.
Prior to joining Samworth Brothers, Wookey worked for 20 years at Greencore, holding a variety of senior commercial and managing director positions. On leaving Greencore he joined Maple Leaf Foods in Toronto, Canada as president of its Prepared Food business for four years before returning to the UK in 2012, following which he held several senior positions at 2 Sisters group including managing director of its Convenience business.
Samworth Brothers chairman Mark Samworth said: “Under Hugo’s leadership the business continued its recovery from Covid and its aftermath and rose to the challenge of successfully managing and mitigating significant inflationary pressures.
“With the executive team, he has reset our business strategy and has refined our operating model and ways of working to help us better act as one Samworth Brothers with our customers and suppliers. Samworth Brothers is well positioned for the future, and in the years to come the business will benefit from his development of our modernisation programme. Hugo has made a significant contribution to the performance of our business, and we wish him every success in the future.”