Aberdeenshire food manufacturer Macphie has named Ed Widdowson as chief executive, marking a significant milestone as the company moves to fourth-generation family leadership.

Mr Widdowson is the nephew of former chairman Alastair Macphie and is part of a long-term succession plan to grow the company’s 97-year family leadership tradition.

Prior to joining Macphie in 2017, Mr Widdowson built a career in strategy, sales and marketing, spending eight years at Procter & Gamble in the UK and Switzerland, working across global brands including Gillette, Pampers, and Oral-B before becoming head of sales for Duracell UK.

He said: “It’s an honour to take on this role and lead Macphie into its next phase of evolution. This company has an incredible heritage, and as a family business, we have a deep-rooted practice of investing in our people, our products and our sustainability efforts.

“My time will be dedicated to building stronger customer partnerships and driving projects that reduce our carbon output whilst delivering operational efficiencies.”

Since joining the family company, Mr Widdowson has progressed through key leadership roles, beginning as head of sales where he drove significant growth within the bakery and on-the-go sector.

In 2022, he was promoted to site director at the company’s manufacturing headquarters in Aberdeenshire before moving into the most recent role of strategy, people & sustainability director. This was a newly-created position designed to give greater weight to these three key business areas.

“Our ambition is to expand Macphie’s global footprint, particularly in high-growth markets and we have already made significant progress in several regions including the Middle East.” he said.

“This year we will be opening our first facility outside the UK in Dubai, as we look to build on the exciting vision and ambition of the region.”

Norman Soutar, chairman of Macphie said: “Facing into the challenging market conditions of the last five years, the Macphie business showed great resilience and concurrently, most impressive sales growth.

“This success was underpinned by the certainty and long-term view of our family ownership; which, allowed us to establish our strong commercial relationships, support our commitment to innovation, and helped build our reputation.”