Nigel Dunlop has this month joined Moy Park as managing director, becoming only the second to hold the title since 1983. Dr Trefor Campbell, who has held the role since that date, was appointed non-executive chairman of the Moy Park Group last autumn.
Nigel Dunlop, age 51, comes to Moy Park from the Gallaher Group plc where he has been executive director, sitting on the main plc board, since 2002. Gallaher was ranked 47th in the FTSE 100 prior to being acquired by Japan Tobacco last year. He is credited with playing a key role in Gallaher’s transformation from a largely UK business into one of the largest and most efficient tobacco companies worldwide.
He is also a non-executive director of Warburton’s, the UK’s largest independent bakers and currently ranked the UK’s 2nd biggest grocery brand.
Nigel Dunlop joined Gallaher in 1980 as a management trainee following a spell working overseas, mainly in Asia (Hong Kong and Nepal). He has held a variety of posts across the Gallaher business and was responsible for overseeing a series of initiatives aimed at improving business performance.
Originally educated in Northern Ireland, he returned to live there with his wife and four children in 1997, having worked away in the intervening period.
Since his appointment to Moy Park was announced last September, he has managed to spend time acquainting himself with his new colleagues across the Moy Park Group – which employs over 7000 people on 12 sites – and the complexities and intrigues of the poultry business which, like so much of the British agri-business, is again facing many tough challenges this year.
Moy Park Group chairman, Dr Trefor Campbell, himself a major figure in the poultry industry, was presented at the end of last year with the Northern Ireland Food & Drink Association’s prestigious Award for making an ‘Outstanding Contribution to Northern Ireland Food & Drink’. This came shortly after also being awarded BOCM Paul’s ‘Man of the Year’, as judged by peers from across the GB poultry business.
Said Campbell: “We looked long and hard to find an individual of Nigel’s calibre and experience. His evident commercial successes speak for themselves. That he hails from Northern Ireland can only be a bonus in understanding the special culture that is Moy Park.â€