October 19, 2022
Ornua is pleased to announce the appointment of Simon Ball as the new Managing Director of Ornua Foods UK. Simon takes over the role from Bill Hunter who has taken on the role of Finance Director for Ornua’s Global Foods Division.
Based at its headquarters in Leek, Staffordshire, Simon will lead the growth and development of Ornua Foods UK, the largest supplier of pre-packed British and Irish hard cheese to a range of major retailers. The company, which is part of the Ornua Group, has sales of £400 million and a portfolio of high-quality retail own-label and branded cheese and butter. The latter includes Pilgrims Choice, the clear No.2 branded cheddar in the UK, and Kerrygold, the UK’s No.3 block butter brand.
Simon has extensive food manufacturing experience and joins Ornua from Greencore, where he was Business Unit Director at their dedicated Marks and Spencer production site in Northampton.
Prior to his time with Greencore, Simon held a number of senior management roles including the position of Head of Trading for Fresh Produce & Horticulture at Marks and Spencer; Managing Director of a division of IPL Ltd., wholly owned by Asda; and Managing Director of two divisions of the William Jackson Food Group. He has also held Country Operations Manager roles in Morocco with two fresh produce organisations, including, a division of Fyffes.
Commenting on his appointment, Simon Ball said, “I am delighted to join Ornua Foods UK at what is an exciting time for both the business and the wider sector. 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.”