One of Europe’s leading pallet poolers has appointed a senior leader with more than 30 years’ experience in FMCG and SME excellence as the new head of its UK and Ireland business.
Andy Maddock joins Coventry-based IPP after three decades working in the beer industry for Scottish and Newcastle, Caledonian Brewery, the world’s third-largest brewer Heineken and the renowned Warwickshire craft brewery Purity Brewing Company.
The former professional Rugby player, who played for Wasps and Rosslyn Park in the 1990s, is bringing his experience in the sector to IPP, which provides reusable pallet and box pooling services for FMCG and industrial supply chains.
Born in the West Country, Andy said his entrepreneurial streak came from watching his parents run their own grocery business, which he took with him to university in London and opened two coffee bars on campus.
Looking back on his career, Andy said: “It was great fun and a great experience running my own small business coming out of university, but I said to myself that I wanted to work in an FMCG business and I fell into beer, where I worked my way up the sales and marketing ladder.”
After first working up to become sales director for Scottish and Newcastle (S&N) in the UK, Andy progressed to his first general management position as managing director of Caledonian Brewery, which was part of the Heineken acquisition of S&N, in 2013.
“Working for Scottish and Newcastle, I was responsible for brands such as Foster’s, John Smiths, Kronenbourg 1664 and Strongbow when it was the number one brewer in the UK.”
When Andy was at Heineken, he was involved in major projects including Champions League and Heineken Cup Rugby sponsorship and activation, as well as the 2012 Olympics, progressing to a leadership position in Europe leading on change management.
“The work was centred around really energising the Heineken business around the craft movement, working on major global sponsorships and activations,” he said.
“I then progressed to a role focusing on changing Heineken’s processes behaviourally, to make business more fleet of foot and agile. We were taking things which would normally take 18 months and making them 18-week processes. I worked across 23 markets in Europe for Heineken, running more 200 projects, embedding the behaviour change as best we could.”
Following 25 years in ‘big beer’, Andy then joined Alcester-based Purity Brewing Company in 2021, where he was also group CEO between July 2022 and November 2023.
His path to joining IPP came from first meeting the company’s chief financial officer, Rob De Weert, while working for Heineken, further meetings with the IPP CEO Thomas Damson and finally the Faber Group chief executive Ingrid Faber.
He said: “IPP interested me because I've been in and around logistics all my life, but not at the front and centre.
“The more I talked to individuals in the business, the more interested I was and the more I found it aligned with my value set – family based, people-oriented and customer experience centric. All of those things shone off the page and brought me in with even more vigour and interest.
“Although my background is in change and transformation, this role is about helping to bring stability, alongside the well-established team in the UK&I. It’s about bringing knowledge from bigger organisations and different thinking that creates solidity to build on the already established foundations in the very short term and then to enable growth.
“What is it that David Brailsford said when he was in charge of Team Sky Cycling? ‘The one per cent improvements matter.’ That is what can make the difference.”
“We are well placed to grow. My role is about ensuring we are spending the time to think and grow in a controlled way, not just in a way which chases the top line.”
Andy is married with three children between 16 and 20 years of age and spends his spare time landscaping, working on projects around his home, travelling and watching his kids play sport.
“From all my learning throughout my career, one consistent thing is people, good people. My purpose is creating an environment where people thrive and are able to bring their best to work every day” he added.
IPP CEO Thomas Domson said: “We are delighted that Andy joins IPP at this time. He brings a wealth of leadership experience from a number of businesses to the IPP UK and Ireland organisation at an exciting time for us.
“He will play an important role in enhancing the business, bringing both stability and the ability to grow over time. We are a family values and people-based business – Andy compliments that well. The future is exciting for the UK&I with having Andy on board.’’
For more information on IPP, visit www.ipp-pooling.com or search for IPP Pooling on LinkedIn.
