In a move blending strategic intent with a clear appetite for growth, Finsbury Food Group has expanded its commercial leadership team by creating a new senior post: Group Product and Innovation Director. Neil Rockliff, formerly of Samworth Brothers, has been appointed to the role.
The new Innovation Director position clearly underlines Finsbury Food Group’s plan to place creativity firmly at the centre of its growth agenda. The goal is to strength alignment with customers while ensuring the company’s product development can shape long-term direction, rather than simply respond o current demand.
Mr Rockliff joins with extensive experience across complex, multi-site, multi-category food businesses, having previously held roles at Samworth Brothers and Greencore, experience that closely reflects Finsbury’s own UK and European footprint and diverse portfolio across retail, foodservice and export channels.
The newly created role is designed not only to strengthen the innovation pipeline but also to inform future investment decisions by identifying emerging growth areas earlier. By aligning innovation strategy with capital planning, the company aims to evolve manufacturing capability in line with future category growth and build a sustainable competitive advantage.
Speaking about his appointment, Mr Rockliff said: “When I met with the leadership team, it was immediately clear there is real ambition within Finsbury, ambition for quality and ambition for growth. The diversity of Finsbury’s product and customer mix creates huge opportunities from an innovation perspective. There’s real scope to evolve categories and unlock new areas of growth.”
Mr Rockliff will report to Graeme Clark and work closely with Ben Kisby to analyse and apply insight data in building propositions centred on consumer needs.
“When innovation is grounded in insight, commercially viable and compelling enough for consumers to repeat purchase, you’ve hit the sweet spot,” he added. “Achieving this means investing more time at the front end to answer the ‘so what’ behind every new product. While concept-to-launch timelines are shortening and the pace of change is accelerating, working alongside a team that understands both manufacturing capability and technical parameters allows you to push boundaries and bring exciting products to market.”
The creation of the Group Product and Innovation Director role represents a notable milestone in Finsbury’s growth journey, reinforcing its commitment to innovation-led development in a changing bakery market.
“A core focus of Neil’s role will be to ensure Finsbury’s innovation approach is both proactive and strategically aligned,” said Mr Clark. “By strengthening the connection between insight, category strategy and development, Finsbury’s new product propositions will be grounded in robust consumer understanding while delivering commercial impact.”
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