Premier Foods has promoted Caroline Jary to head of marketing for Hovis.

Jary, who joined the manufacturer in April last year as head of brand for Hovis, took on her new role this week, replacing Jon Goldstone who was promoted to group marketing director in December.

The main focus for Jary in her new role would be "taking the turnaround of the Hovis brand to the next level", and to deliver sustainable and solid growth, said Tim Kelly, chief operating officer for Premier Foods. "The main challenge in such a traded and competitive category is to remain focused on core brand strength and to keep raising the bar on our competitors," he added.

Jary worked at Mars for 14 years before joining Premier. During her time there she had strategic control of all the company's countlines and as brand manager for Mars bar brought back the 'Work, rest, play' strapline. Before working at Mars, Jary was at M&S, which she joined as a commercial trainee after leaving university.

She described her greatest career achievements as "starting the Mars brand resurgence" and "taking the brand's performance to a new level".

Kelly added that the creation of the group marketing function would play a key role in the delivery of Premier's strategy to accelerate branded growth. "Jon will bring a focus on marketing excellence across the entire business," he said.

Hovis was the second-biggest selling bread brand in the UK last year, according to The Grocer's Top Products Survey 2010, with sales of £428.3m.