Smales has strengthened its senior management team by the appointment of two long serving senior managers to its board of directors. Richard Winter has been appointed as Food Service Director and Bobby Joyce as the Company’s Sales and Marketing Director.
The Company is well placed to build on a solid customer base in the fish and chip and food service sectors. These two appointments will bring a new impetus for growth at Smales. Smales currently supplies around 25% of the UK’s fish and chip sector and also supplies many high profile food service customers with sustainable seafood and catering products.
The fish and chip shop sector has shown considerable resilience and has remained strong throughout the period of the pandemic. Fish and chip shops, supplying the national dish, have helped to maintain the U.K’s spirit in these difficult times. Smales are now looking forward to the future and are well positioned to grow its business as the hospitality industry fully reopens in the coming months.
Richard Winter has worked for the Smales family for many years. His sales management, logistic and product category experience has been gained from various roles within the business that included Depot Manager and National Account Manager for the former distribution subsidiary.
Following a period of working in other areas of the industry, Richard returned to the business in 2010 to create the Smales Food Service Division which now supplies some of the industry’s most respected and well known national operators in the catering market. Growth in the independent catering sector has been supported by an increasing number of regional Food Service wholesale customers.
Richard has successfully expanded many of our popular seafood product ranges including the development of our own Blue Horizon brand. He has also overseen the business achieve BRC AA grade accreditation for storage and distribution and MSC chain of custody certification.
Entering a new chapter for 2021, Richard will now become the Director of Food Service. We have no doubt that he will embrace this new role and help the company to grow and develop further.
Bobby Joyce joined Smales as a fresh-faced 21 year old Sales Executive in 2002. Eight years later, he then took on the additional role of Purchasing Manager for our extensive range of catering products, a move which prompted sales growth of these items in all subsequent years.
Serving in his present role as National Sales Manager since 2015, Bobby has been heavily involved in establishing our Regional Distribution Centres, implementing dedicated area selling from our Head Office, the growth of our Fish & Chip customer base and many aspects of marketing the business – including rebranding the company logo, website, vehicle liveries and product guides.
Bobby has cultivated excellent relationships with both our customers at home and our suppliers across the seas, including many award winning Fish & Chip operators and has been involved in successful wider-industry PR campaigns. As a fantastic ambassador for Smales and the industry as a whole, we know that Bobby will continue to build on these achievements in his new position as Sales & Marketing Director.