Alan Gilson

BiaVest is Ireland’s only dedicated food investment vehicle, formed by leading food executives from Ireland. Highly experienced, successful professionals, driven by a desire to help quality food brands maximise their potential. As Ireland’s first food-focused private equity company, we are committed to investing in high quality food brands, a strategy stemming from our own success with & passion for food. We are building a diversified portfolio of food and food-related brands with potential for both domestic and international growth, through strategic investment, stealthful marketing and product development. https://www.nomadic.ie/yogurt-and-oat-clusters https://offbeatdonuts.com/contact-us/ https://www.nobo.ie/pages/about-us https://www.teigwaren-riesa.de/ https://www.muensterland-milch.de/ https://www.kerga.group/about

The Brand Partners @ VALEO FOODS. The Go To Specailist business unit within Valeo Foods Ireland for Brands with genuine ambition. We are focused on growing your Brands on the Island of Ireland through world class planning & Brand execution. ‘We plan You grow’ Leveraging the experience, relationships, influence, wide category presence along with the significant scale of the Valeo Foods In market teams. Managing traditional brands and fast emerging brands ensuring maximum growth & exposure. Enviable reach into the Grocery, Convenience, Pharmacy & Licensed channels & customers. Alpro, LavAzza, Grenade, Vitabiotics, Spotlight,Nature Valley, Kettle Crisps, Bollinger & Torres a mere snapshot of a few Brand partnerships we are delighted to be part of. ‘We Plan You Grow’

We are a leading producer & innovator of high quality, category-defining branded food products that have a proud history that dates back to 1845. At Valeo Foods, we are passionate about food and our portfolio of iconic food brands, which includes Jacobs, Batchelors, Rowse Honey, Odlums, Roma, Shamrock, Chef, Erin, & most recently, Kettle Crisps. Brands that are tried and trusted by consumers across Ireland and the UK for their quality, wholesomeness, nutrition and fun. Our products can be found in 98 per cent of all Irish homes and in over four million homes in the UK. We are a diverse business that combines food production across three sites in Ireland and the UK, brand development and innovation, distribution and sales. We are Ireland’s largest ambient food supplier to the grocery trade, a major supplier to the food service market through Valeo Professional, and an increasingly prominent supplier to the UK market, leveraged by our recent acquisition of Rowse Honey. We are focused on the continued development of our excellent portfolio of category defining food brands as we look to expand our footprint across Ireland, the UK and beyond. We are committed to delivering quality food products through continued innovation and excellence in manufacturing. This commitment ensures that our brands retain a market leading position in each of their respective categories. We continue to recruit people with the best skills and expertise across a range of areas including manufacturing, food science, research and development, nutrition, distribution, sales, operations, marketing, and finance, and aspire to be a best in class employer, focused on developing and empowering our people.

Leading Social - Giving you Market Leading Social Media. Check us out at leadingsocial.net or get in touch at hello@leadingsocial.net. We're a dedicated social media agency that expertly market clients in an area where 95% of internet users are spending over five and a half hours daily. We support clients with social media management, content and advertising. At Leading Social we work with a range of different clients including brands, businesses and public figureheads. As the work we do on behalf of our clients can be done remotely from anywhere in the world, there are no limits to who we can work with or from where. Follow us on Twitter @Leading_Social, Instagram @leadingsocial or get in touch with us by emailing hello@leadingsocial.com.

ARYZTA is one of the largest frozen bakery companies in the world. The group has a leadership position in the speciality frozen bakery sector and is a global supplier of baked goods to the foodservice, retail and QSR sectors. ARYZTA operate 60 bakeries and kitchens across Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Whilst in this role I managed the strategic and operational development of ARYZTA UK and Ireland Bakeries Business Unit which included maximizing the budgeted sales and delivering core KPI’s in all Irish and U.K. Bakeries. In addition to supporting and exploiting European Bakery network investments, delivering on the New Business and Customer Acquisition Agenda across domestic and international markets and pioneering the expansion of the company’s customer base, I directed all activities associated with the N.P.D. process and managed the team of sales and marketing executives. Achievements in this role • Successfully secured and managed the international licensing agreements between ARYZTA Bakeries and Ornua Cooperative Limited (formally Irish Dairy Board). Brand such as Pilgrim’s Choice cheese breads (UK), Kerrygold Garlic Baguettes (Europe) and Kerrygold Dubliner Cheese (USA).

Cuisine de France, a member of the ARYZTA group, offers the customer traditional French breads, pastries and also a wide range of continental-style bread, confectionary and hot savoury items. As their Sales and Marketing Director, I had multiple responsibilities which included: • Designing and implementing innovative sales and marketing strategies in order to drive the performance and profitability levels of Cuisine de France’s Irish business, turnover approx. €125M • Performing a wide range of management duties focused on ensuring the delivery of budgeted sales and profit levels in conjunction with brand and consumer strategy targets • Developing and implementing business strategy whilst ensuring the delivery of the company’s overall sales & marketing objectives and commercial KPI’s • Creating a robust action plan in conjunction with the award winning programme SHOUT, achieving a significant turnaround in growth levels in the process • Establishing significant customer relationships with key customers and influencers, both Head Office and individual retailers • Managing and motivating sales and marketing executives • Directing the development of the Field Senior Management Team, Field Sales Development Teams & the Telesales Division ensuring delivery of relevant commercial KPI’s

Carroll’s Cuisine are one of the market leaders in Ready Cooked Deli products. As their Commercial Director, my main responsibility was establishing the Carroll’s pre-pack sliced meats as a major brand within the Irish market while delivering the marketing and commercial KPI’s for the business through developing significant relationships with all key stakeholders. Additional responsibilities and achievements included both devising and executing a robust marketing plan for the brand whilst assuming all profit and loss responsibility for Account Management, Sales Manager’s and the Telesales Division while delivering all opportunities for the brand through the Carroll Cuisine Van Sales Network utilising the incentivised K.P.I. programmes directing behaviours and delivering on the company’s objectives.

As the franchise owner of the Spar Express Retail Franchise in Cloghan, Co. Offaly I managed all the strategic and operational elements of this successful retail franchise business registering an increase in turnover from €2.8 to €4.6 million, thus establishing the location as a premier, local retail destination. This also included managing of all staff development initiatives, ensuring delivery of relevant commercial KPI’s while maintaining superior standards of customer service.

As Commercial Director I was responsible for managing the commercial, marketing and new product development activities within the pastry unit of the company, attaining an annual turnover of €50 million and establishing Green Isle Foods as a leading supplier of retail frozen pastry products in both the UK and Irish markets. Notable achievement in this role include successfully creating and launching the John Bullers pastry brand and winning the 2004 British Frozen Food Awards in two categories – Silver and Bronze Award for Best Meat-Based Product. Following this success, I was responsible for expanding the John Bullers’ brand via a 2 person eat format to form a significant market segment, whilst increasing the volume of own label products supplied to key UK retailers.

Pigsback.com, Empathy Marketing launched in Ireland in 2000 followed by the UK in 2005. It is designed to make advertising work for the mutual benefit of consumers and brands and offers a unique, interactive and targeted experience for its members, to whom the service is free. The Pigsback.com community is a vibrant and active community with members actively submitting cinema reviews, travel reviews, recipes and much more, for each other's benefit. During my time with Empathy Marketing, I created an innovative and effective sales team, established & expanded the client base and maintained high revenue levels via the sale of marketing solutions through the internet and off-line activities. I consolidated control of Pigsback.com, Ireland’s largest permission based consumer website, growing the corporate body at the time of launch. In addition to this, I attained profitability for 3 years in a row throughout a challenging sector, focusing all energies towards revenue generation.

Green Isle Foods Ltd was established in 1982 is the leading Irish Frozen Food Company, and a fast growing supplier to major UK retailers. As their Group Trade Marketing Manager, my role included: • Establishing & managing all the company’s trade marketing activities across the U.K., Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. • Maintaining responsibility for Green Isle Foods’ key distributor network and retail convenience business. • Supervising trade marketing executives and field implementation members in the management of price lists, market data analyses and EPOS analyses etc. • Developing the Category Management Agenda achieving partnerships with the likes of Superquinn, Supervalu and Tesco Ireland.

• Supervising Senior Area Sales Managers in the management of brand and sales exposure for groups such as Londis, Shell Ireland and Quick Pick Group • Delivering a profitable National Distribution Service for Green Isle Foods, as well as achieving all budget volume margins and profit (IR£22 million) for a 12 month period. • Coordinating a new computerised accounting/stock control and sales analysis system for Green Isle foods third party key distributors in Ireland.

• Overseeing 5 Green Isle Sales Representatives and 3 Trade Merchandisers in the management of all marketing objectives, product launches and promotions etc. • Developing and implementing all call and route cycles, along with reporting on all activities the company’s competitors are engaged in within the market. • Successfully launching the Goodfella’s pizza brand in the Irish Frozen Food market, along with the Pierre’s Food Service brand • Managing and mentoring all Sales Representatives within the field in order to establish an effective sales force, achieving all budgeted targets for the team in the process.

Created a strategy that establishes ARYZTA as a leader & innovator in H&W and delivers sustainable business success as part of the I.M.I. Leadership Programme Objective.