Middleby hands Chris Jones responsibility for Europe

21 Sep 21

Middleby UK and Lincat Group MD Chris Jones has been given additional responsibility after being appointed group president of Middleby Worldwide – Europe.

The expanded focus will see him tasked with leading Middleby’s operations in the Europe as individual markets begin to stabilise again following the pandemic.

In a statement given to FEJ confirming the appointment, Middleby stated: “During his time at Middleby, Chris has been instrumental in helping reshape the selling and distribution strategy in the UK.

“Additionally, throughout the last year during Covid, Chris and his team launched the new Middleby UK showroom and many new products across all of his product lines to better support the client base.”

US-based Middleby distributes many of the brands that it owns into the UK and European market place, including Pitco, Josper and Turbochef.

Middleby added: “Chris’ customer-centric approach, coupled with his ‘Middleby 1’ strategy that he has implemented in the UK, will set him up for success as he takes on the leadership role in all of Europe.”

Mr Jones recently discussed the thinking behind the Middleby 1 concept in an exclusive interview with FEJ.

He described it as his vision for the future of Middleby within the UK: “We have independent brands such as Lincat, IMC, FriFri and 57 brands from Middleby globally and we all operate with different P&Ls. But the Middleby 1 concept is all to do with how we bring that together for the customer. We want to be easy to deal with.”