Durham-based healthy snack wholesaler Epicurium has made two senior appointments to further strengthen its team following a period of significant growth.
The company recently boosted its product range by 20% with the addition of 25 new brands – with products including energy bars and balls, snacks, and drinks.
New Head of Sales & Marketing, Mark Jerdan, joins the business with a breath of experience following 20 years at P&G, working across sales, market, finance and R&D. He has worked across North America, Western Europe and in the UK and Ireland and covered a multitude of customers and channel combinations including major multiples, pharmacy, high street, discount, wholesale and convenience. He joins Epicurium following a senior position managing the distributor business for P&G, covering 450 customers across the UK and Europe.
Jerdan has a strategic role within Epicurium, tasked with growing the sales and marketing function in 2020. The wholesaler is creating new account managers and telesales roles to support its continued growth, working with independent retailers across the UK.
Jerdan commented: “It’s such an exciting time to be joining the team at Epicurium. My aim is to develop the business into the number one go to supplier for on trend, innovative products by providing consumer and category insights to our customers which drives mutual value and business for our partners.
“Alongside the immediate growth of the sales and marketing function, I’m looking at making internal processes more agile which will help us make changes fast – our vision is to double the business within three years – so we’re very ambitious and being agile will help us to deliver this, alongside the excellent customer service and expertise we’re so well known for.”
Meanwhile, Sam Ayton has joined the business as a National Account Manager. He has a wealth of FMCG experience following positions at SHS and Coca-Cola. Ayton is tasked with looking after major forecourt brands, working to grow customer accounts nationally as part of the expanded sales and marketing team.
He said: “I’m looking forward to working with our clients and building on those relationships with our new and emerging brands. It’s great to be part of such an exciting growth area for the business.”
Epicurium Managing Director, Ben McKechnie, added: “It’s been a hugely positive 2019 for our business and we’re delighted to welcome both Mark and Sam to the team.
“We’ve got a strong reputation for providing innovative ‘on trend’ products to our customers and we’re making sure that our team is structured to support our continued growth working with national retailers in 2020.
“We work with some of the most exciting snack brands across the UK and beyond. Making sure our customers have access to innovators and game-changing snack products is a vital part of our service for retailers across the UK and we’ve already got plans in place for even more new products to join our range in 2020.”
