Tulip Ltd. has appointed Steve Francis as its new CEO, a transfer of leadership for the Danish Crown-owned business which was completed on September 5 when he replaced former CEO, Chris Thomas.
“Steve Francis comes to Tulip with extensive international experience of turning around companies which are facing difficulties,” said Danish Crown group CEO, Jais Valeur.
“He has experience from several sectors, including the food and meat industries, and is an expert in solving complex problems in companies where ‘that’s what we usually do’ no longer suffices.”
Mr Valeur said that over the summer, Danish Crown had realised there are significant gains to be made through more focused efforts and closer cooperation with the rest of the group.
“We want to regain our position as the preferred choice among consumers and customers in the key UK market,” he said. “This task is now in the hands of Tulip Ltd’s new CEO.”
By way of further background to the appointment, the company added that fierce competition in the retail market, increasing raw material prices, the loss of significant contracts and internal issues with productivity and pricing were amongst the challenges currently facing Tulip.
“As a consequence of these challenges, Chris Thomas has stepped down from his role as CEO and Steve Francis has been appointed, with immediate effect,” stated Danish Crown.
Mr Francis (pictured above) commented: “I am convinced that working with passion for food, passion for farming and with pace, discipline and precision as a team we can overtake our rivals and return to our rightful position as the #1 player in pork.”
The new CEO holds a Master’s degree in Physics from Oxford University, has previously worked for international companies such as McKinsey, PwC and Barclays, and has held a number of executive positions with the Dutch slaughterhouse group Vion Food Group. Most recently, he was CEO of the UK company, Danwood, where he “successfully turned a loss of more than DKK 80 million (£9m) into a profit of more than DKK 50m (£5.65m) within the space of 12 months”.