Bakkavor CEO and co-founder to retire after 36 years leading the company

Bakkavor, the international food manufacturing giant, has welcomed a new CEO. Agust Gudmundsson — who founded Bakkavor along with his brother, Lydur, back in 1986 — will be going into retirement at the end of October, with Mike Edwards to step up to the CEO role the day after Mr Gudmundsson's exit.

The London-headquartered firm is one of the key food suppliers in the UK, retailing in supermarket giants such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer, and bringing in revenue of over £1bn.

Mr Gudmundsson commented on his retirement: "After 36 years at the helm, I am incredibly proud of the company we have built and the teams and people I have worked with during this time. The past few years have demonstrated the strength and resilience of Bakkavor and I am confident of the group's success for the future."

Mr Gudmundsson's successor, Mike Edwards, spoke about his time at Bakkavor: "Joining the business over 20 years ago as a manufacturing manager at one of our pizza factories, I never expected to have the honour of being appointed CEO of Bakkavor. Whilst this is a particularly challenging environment, I absolutely believe challenges create opportunities and we are incredibly well placed, as a Bakkavor team, to move forward positively and purposefully delivering for colleagues, customers and shareholders."

The Bakkavor chairman, Simon Burke, added: "Chairmen normally thank an outgoing CEO with a couple of polite sentences but, in this case, that will really not suffice. The founding and building of Bakkavor by Agust, along with his brother Lydur and their colleagues, has all the hallmarks of a great entrepreneurial endeavour.

It has created a first-class business with strong market positions and great opportunities, one of the global leaders in its sector. Vision, courage, steadfastness, loyalty and the highest standards of professionalism have all been key elements of Agust's leadership."

Mike has delivered operational excellence, strong customer relationships and consistent commercial performance in our UK business and I am greatly looking forward to working with him on the next stage of Bakkavor's development."