Mansfields makes new appointments

Top fruit grower F W Mansfield & Son has announced some recent new appointments reflecting growth in the Kent firm’s business.

Investments in growing, packing, and storage as well as new offices and systems have totalled well over £10 million, and this autumn 200,000 new trees will be planted making it the largest fruit growing operation in the UK.

Accountant Philip Hermon joins Mansfields as financial director from field marketing company Headcount after 11 years at the FDS group of companies and 13 years with Canterbury chartered accountancy firm Burgess Hodgson.

Operations manager Simon Taylor has been recruited from New Zealand where he worked for four years at Enza packhouses in Hawkes Bay and Nelson following eight years with the Mr Apple Group including a year at EWT in the UK.

Packhouse manager Paul Baker is coming back to the fresh produce industry after a 25-year gap in logistics and distribution roles at electronics and paper distribution companies, latterly as managing director. He now joins F W Mansfield & Son with responsibility for the operations and the execution of all packing programmes.

And Mike Green has returned to the top-fruit business taking control for corporate affairs at Mansfields building on more than 25 years experience in commercial horticulture in technical, production and marketing roles at Home Grown Fruits, Enfru and Worldwide Fruit.

Managing director, Paul Mansfield said: “ F W Mansfield & Son isin a position to compete with the best from anywhere in the world, and has the added advantage of being local to the UK marketplace. These latest appointments to the management team at F W Mansfield & Son greatly enhance the organisation’s ability to manage the larger crops of future years and the changing requirements of the marketplace.”