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Milner takes on CEO role at St Pierre Groupe

Milner takes on CEO role at St Pierre Groupe
New CEO David Milner

David Milner has been appointed CEO of the UK’s fastest-growing branded bakery business, three years after joining the board. He will take over from co-founder Jeremy Gilboy, who will move to become chairman of the company.

Milner was previously responsible for driving international growth at Tyrells and progressing the Lily’s Kitchen pet food brand.


St Pierre Groupe now has a retail value of a quarter of a billion dollars, after substantial growth of its branded propositions. The business portfolio includes St Pierre, America’s number one brioche brand; Baker Street, the extended life bakery brand; and Paul Hollywood, the category-leader in part-baked bread.

As non-executive Chairman at St Pierre Groupe, Milner spent the past three years in a strategic role but will now implement growth plans internationally, alongside the senior leadership team. The appointment is part of a long-term strategy to bolster the board of directors with unrivalled experience in UK and US markets. Since 2018, St Pierre Groupe has grown its turnover by 68 per cent.

“St Pierre Groupe is a phenomenal business, doing bakery differently with its three brands," said Milner. "Since joining the business in 2018, I’ve worked with the team to achieve incredible growth. Yet there is still huge potential – it is innovative, superior quality and branded. The workforce has increased threefold in 18 months and I’m excited to guide the team to even greater success.”

“David has been instrumental in our remarkable success in the past three years and appointing him as CEO was a natural next step to prepare us to meet ambitious growth plans,” said St Pierre Groupe founder Paul Baker.

“It’s an incredibly exciting time for the company," Milner agreed. "A great brand starts with a quality product and St Pierre Groupe has quality products in abundance.

“Across the globe, consumers are shifting to more premium products – Covid simply accelerated the shift, encouraging us to innovate for and elevate everyday meals with our product ranges. As a business we are renowned for working with retailers to deliver exceptional category growth – and we are constantly reviewing the market, consumer habits and our products to ensure this continues”.

David Milner’s appointment as CEO comes with a plan to double the value of the business in the next five years.

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The Federation of Independent Retailers (The Fed) has launched an exclusive benefits scheme for Fed members.

Called FedPlus, the scheme offers a range of discounts on a host of goods and activities, from everyday purchases to luxury products.

Through FedPlus, Fed members will have access to a range of fantastic money-saving benefits covering a wide variety of areas – from health and well-being to home and car essentials, and from food and drink to fashion and tech, entertainment, travel and experiences.

There is a Savings Calculator to show how much has been saved, based on monthly or annual spending, on a range of everyday categories. The Savings Calculator will generate a personal savings total and provide links to the individual deals.

Launching FedPlus, National President Mo Razzaq said: “In my inaugural speech at the Fed’s Annual Conference in June, I spoke about the importance of providing more benefits to help members make money, save money and make business easier.

“Just four months on, we are delighted to bring you FedPlus. This is an exciting new addition to our ever-growing list of member benefits which brings you quick, at your fingertips access to several offers across a wide range of categories so the money in your wallets and purses goes even further in these financially strained times.”

Members can access the scheme through thefedonline.com website. It went live yesterday (October 31).

FedPlus is managed and run for the Fed by Parliament Hill Limited, which has been providing benefit management solutions for membership organisations for the past 20 years. Top name companies offering discounts include Virgin Experience Days, Nuffield Health, Hotpoint, Halfords, Boots, Curry’s and EE.

Tom Sparke, joint managing director and client services director at Parliament Hill, said: “We are looking forward to working with the Fed to assist them in the fantastic support that it provides for its members.

“The Fed has a strong commitment to supporting its members, which aligns with the Parliament Hill ethos of placing the needs of our clients’ members at the heart of what we do.”

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