Case Studies

Family owned food service retailer Cherrytree Bakery was looking to fill the role of Commercial Director following the departure of a key family member. The new hire was required to have strong domain experience within the food and manufacturing industry, along with experience of managing large retail customers. As the business looked to continue on their growth journey there was also the need for the incoming Commercial Director to have strong situational experience – increasing production capacity, driving additional revenue from existing customers and broadening the customer base. In recent years the business had identified the risk of their reliance on a select few customers who had increased their ordering with the company.

Since joining Cherrytree, Mark has led the re-negotiation of existing Client contracts and played a pivotal role in winning several key commercial contracts. The commercial strategy introduced by Mark has enabled the business to adjust the balance within their customer portfolio and reduce the risk previously caused by having fewer larger customers.

Throughout the global pandemic Mark and the team where able to keep the reduction in business to just 50%. And having renegotiated existing contracts and supported with the onboarding of new customers turnover has increased by 225% to £18m in just three years. Mark has now taken on the role of Managing Director allowing owner Gary to step into the more strategic CEO position.