Pukka Pies has announced the appointment of Rachel Cranston as its head of marketing.
Cranston has around 18 years’ experience in marketing and brand management. She joined Pukka from Alpro, where she spent more than seven years, having started in September 2011 as a senior brand manager. She later rose through the ranks to become media marketing manager and then senior marketing manager for UK & Ireland.
Prior to Alpro, she spent nine years at Kraft Foods working in roles within brand marketing, consumer insight and trade marketing across different categories.
Cranston began her career in 1997 as a client service executive for multinational market research provider Millward Brown, before moving to The Walt Disney Company as a brand development supervisor, and then to Kraft.
At Pukka, she will responsible for driving the Leicester supplier’s three-year growth strategy “to sell more pies to more people, more often”. As part of the company’s leadership team at Pukka, she will lead marketing and innovation to drive further growth.
Now was “an exciting time to join Pukka Pies” said Cranston. Her appointment comes after the family-owned brand reported a year-on-year increase in turnover to £49.4m from £45.8m in the 12 months ending 28 May 2018. However, operating profit fell from £3.6m to £2.7m.
In grocery, Pukka’s value has grown 17.9% to £30.8m [Nielsen 52 w/e 8 September 2018], the brand having invested a total of £14m in marketing and advertising since the start of 2017.
It has also launched a raft of NPD, including its first on-the-go options – rolled out last month with an eye to growing the brand’s presence in convenience.
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