Pet Food UK, the Hemel Hempstead natural pet food company behind the Barking Heads, Meowing Heads and AATU brands, has recruited Sarah Kaye and Andy Smith to its senior management team.
Sarah Kaye joins as specialist/online and grocery sales director. She was previously UK sales director at McCormick which supplies spices, herbs and seasonings across the entire food industry, chiefly under its flagship Schwartz brand.
Prior to that, Kaye was a category buying manager at Tesco overseeing its £230m video games category, having worked at Activision Blizzard, the video games publisher whose franchises include Call of Duty Black Ops.
Andy Smith joins as head of marketing from Premier Foods. Smith spent six years in marketing roles in the baking and grocery divisions, working on brands such as McDougalls, Hovis, Homepride, Batchelors and Paul Hollywood.
He was also head of the 'Marketing Academy' – Premier's functional marketing excellence program for 60 marketers.
In March Pet Food UK received a £5m investment from private equity firm Piper with food industry veteran Mark Escolme joining as chairman.
Paul Hunter, managing director of Pet Food UK, said the experience and knowledge of Kaye and Smith would be "invaluable as we continue to drive the growth of our brands both in the UK and abroad".
