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Pallet pooler IPP has recruited a former professional rugby player to be a senior leader and bring stability as well as help grow the business.
Andy Maddock, who played for Wasps and Rosslyn Park in the 1990s as fullback and centre, joins the Coventry-based company as its head of UK and Ireland after 30 years’ experience working in FMCG.
Maddock previously worked in the beer industry for Scottish and Newcastle, Caledonian Brewery, Heineken and craft brewer Purity Brewing Company.
He said his entrepreneurial streak came from watching his parents run their own grocery business, which he took with him to university in London and then opened two coffee bars on campus:
“It was great fun and a great experience running my own small business coming out of university,” he said.
“But I said to myself that I wanted to work in an FMCG business and I fell into beer, where I worked my way up the sales and marketing ladder.”
His path to joining IPP came from first meeting the company’s CFO, Rob De Weert, while working for Heineken, and then further meetings with IPP chief executive Thomas Damson and finally the Faber Group boss Ingrid Faber.
“IPP interested me because I’ve been in and around logistics all my life, but not at the front and centre.
“The more I talked to individuals in the business, the more interested I was and the more I found it aligned with my value set – family based, people-oriented and customer experience centric. All of those things shone off the page and brought me in with even more vigour and interest.
“Although my background is in change and transformation, this role is about helping to bring stability, alongside the well-established team in the UK&I,” he added.
“It’s about bringing knowledge from bigger organisations and different thinking that creates solidity to build on the already established foundations in the very short term and then to enable growth.”
IPP chief executive Thomas Domson said: “We are delighted that Andy joins IPP at this time. He brings a wealth of leadership experience from a number of businesses to the IPP UK and Ireland organisation at an exciting time for us.”
