Dairy Crest's commercial director of foods, Dale Burnett, is to join Noble Foods as group commercial director.

His switch follows that of Peter Thornton, who quit as executive managing director of Dairy Crest in March to become chief executive at the egg specialist.

A key part of Burnett's new role, which will start on August 4, will be examining the opportunity to introduce more branding to eggs.

"We also need to understand the dynamics of the category and see what we can do to make people eat more eggs," he added.

Burnett joined Dairy Crest 10 years ago as sales director for the convenience division, before moving on to be sales director for cheese.

He was promoted to his current role four years ago and helped to oversee the rapid growth of major brands such as Cathedral City and Clover.