The new chief executive of Macphie has declared he has no plans to "rip up the rule book" at the long-established Scottish food giant as he underlined its international growth ambitions. Ed Widdowson was named the new leader of the family-owned business, which has around 300 employees across two sites in Aberdeenshire and Uddingston, earlier this month. Part of the fourth generation of the Macphie family who founded the firm nearly 100 years ago, he moved into the top job finishing touches are being put to a new customer demonstration facility in Dubai.
In his first interview since moving becoming chief executive Mr Widdowson, who was most recently Macphie’s director of strategy, people, and sustainability, told The Herald he is aware of his role in safeguarding the business for future generations declaring that “evolution” will the watchword under his leadership. And he has no plans to “rip up” a way of working that has served the company well for nearly a century. “This is a 97-year-old business,” Mr Widdowson said.
“I have been directly involved in it for eight years. I have got no desire to come in and rip up the rulebook and start doing something entirely different, or doing things in an entirely different way. “It is an evolution, it is a gradual process, and that is what we have been managing over the last 97 years and four generations.
We are on a good trajectory, we have had a really good run, and my ambition is to continue that by doing more of wha.
