FDBusiness.com

Findus Group, one of Europe’s largest frozen food and seafood companies, has appointed Jari Latvanen, formerly with Nestle, to head its new, dedicated business unit covering the Nordic region. The Nordic business employs 800 people in Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

“Jari’s appointment will enable us to drive growth in the region, predominantly from share gains in our key categories, as well as exploring options to enter new categories and consider geographical white-space opportunities,” explains Chris Britton, chief executive of Findus.

The Findus Group has a total of 6000 employees and a turnover of over £1.1b. It is the parent company of Young’s, Findus and The Seafood Company.

In the UK, Young’s is the leading branded producer and distributor of seafood, selling a wide range of seafood products – both chilled and frozen – in retail and food service channels.

Findus is the leading branded frozen food manufacturer in the Nordic region, with market leadership in Sweden, Norway and Finland in each of the frozen ready meals, fish and vegetables segments in which it operates. Findus has a strong presence in France, where it has the strongest brand recognition of any frozen food brand. In the UK, the Findus brand was brought back under direct control of the Findus Group in April 2009.

The Seafood Company is the UK’s leading producer of chilled, private-label seafood products, selling to all of the major UK multiples. It is Europe’s biggest processor of farmed Atlantic salmon. Findus Group was acquired by private equity firm Lion Capital in July 2008.