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Arla Foods amba, the leading European dairy co-operative, has announced the departure of its UK Managing Director, Tomas Pietrangeli, who is leaving the company to become CEO of Danish retail group Dagrofa A/S. Pietrangeli will be replaced by Ash Amirahmadi, who is currently SVP - Sales for Arla Foods in the UK.

Pietrangeli will leave on 30 June 2018, commenting on the announcement, Arla Foods Executive Vice President for Europe, Peter Gioertz-Carlsen said: “We would like to thank Tomas for his service to Arla Foods and the great work he has done with his team to build on our strong category positions in the UK and accelerate the growth of our Lurpak, Anchor, Arla and Castello brands. Tomas has also played an important role in helping to represent the UK Dairy Industry, ensuring that politicians and our many other stakeholders fully understand what is necessary to maintain a strong dairy farming sector in the UK post Brexit. We wish him well in his new role.”

Amirahmadi joined Arla Foods in 2004 from Unilever and has held a number of leadership roles across the business. He was appointed SVP – Sales in 2016, responsible for the company’s 120 strong Commercial Team, all UK customer relationships and global lead for Walmart and Tesco. During this time, Ash has overseen sales growth of circa £200 million and 9% growth in the company’s branded portfolio.

Prior to his current role, he was Vice President of Milk, Members and Trading for five years, working closely with the co-operative’s 2,400 UK farmer owners, growing the company’s local milk supply from 1.6 billion litres to over 3.5 billion litres and overseeing the merger of Arla with Milk Link in 2012, which brought 1,300 UK dairy farmers into the co-operative.

“Ash has been at the heart of the transformation of our UK business over the last decade and has a deep understanding of the UK dairy sector and the consumer and retail trends which are providing its growth opportunities. Over recent years he has led the development of our category growth strategies in partnership with our customers fostering the growing impact of our farmer producer groups, who work closely with customers, to engage shoppers and consumers in the provenance and quality of our products and the leading practices they follow on their farms to constantly improve quality and sustainability standards. I would like to congratulate Ash on his appointment and am looking forward to working even more closely with him in his new role,” said Gioertz-Carlsen.

Amirahmadi is a graduate of Nottingham University where he studied engineering. He is of British and Iranian descent, moving to the UK from Iran during his childhood. Married to Elizabeth they have two children. He will take-up his new role on 1 July 2018.