FWD chairman and current Country Range Group (CRG) managing director Coral Rose is to join Fairway Foodservice as its new chief executive, replacing the outgoing Chris Binge who has been in charge at the foodservice buying group for more than two decades.
Rose will continue to work for CRG until the end of May and will then go on gardening leave until August, before joining Fairway on 1st September. A board meeting, buyers meeting, AGM, as well as two days of members meetings will all be taking place within the first fortnight of her new role.
Binge explained to Better Wholesaling that the foodservice buying group had received more than 200 applicants for the position but the unanimous decision of the board was to appoint Rose.
Read more: Coral Rose to become FWD chairman
Binge said: “Coral is not just a safe pair of hands having done a similar job in a similar organisation for almost 10 years- Coral has skills and knowledge which will be useful helping steer the Fairway Members to continuing success and look for continuous improvement in the array of services Fairway Office can provide to Members. Coral is incredibly knowledgeable about the foodservice industry and about the needs of end user customers, she is professional in her work and is a strong character but also friendly and fair. I could not think of anyone better to lead Fairway for the next 10 years!”
Rose added: “I have enjoyed my time as managing director of the Country Range Group. The members have been great to work with. They have proved resilient throughout the turbulent last couple of years and the group has achieved continued success. I am leaving on good terms. After 10 years I wanted a new challenge. I was talking to Chris about Erudus when he said he was looking for a successor which piqued my interest, and from there the process took over. I am delighted to be joining Fairway and helping the members to grow their businesses profitably- I understand the ethos of Fairway and I think I will be able to bring some different insights to the business to keep it progressing to be ready for the changes which we will inevitable have to contend with over the next few years.”
The collective turnover of the Members recovered to £756min 2021 and is expected to record more than the 2019 record turnover of £821 million in the coming 12 months.
