IFCO Announces New Management in Southern Europe

written by IFCO SYSTEMS, 14th May 2018, in News

IFCO, the leading global provider of reusable packaging containers (RPCs) for fresh foods, has appointed new management in its southern Europe region following the decision of Manuel Montero Lopez, the current VP Southern Europe and general manager of IFCO Spain, to retire at the end of this financial year. Pierre-Olivier Blanchard, currently country manager France at IFCO, has been promoted to the position of VP Southern Europe on 1st May 2018. Blanchard has been with the company since 2005 and will continue to manage the French operation as part of his expanded duties. A new recruit, Lucia Aragones, will be moving into the position of country manager Spain on 4th June 2018.

South Europe: a top contributor to IFCO’s RPC business

Under Manuel Montero Lopez’s leadership, IFCO South Europe has become the company’s second largest region globally.

Clear market leader in France

Against this backdrop, Pierre-Olivier Blanchard will be focusing on maintaining and expanding IFCO’s position of market leadership throughout southern Europe, which includes Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey, while continuing to manage the business in France. With a background in both fresh food and logistics, Blanchard joined IFCO in July 2005 as Country Manager France. He has grown the business significantly by winning many large retailers, turning IFCO into the clear market leader in France.

Number one in Spain

IFCO is also the clear market leader in Spain, with its illustrious retailer customer list. This provides an excellent springboard for Lucia Aragones, who is joining IFCO on 4th June from chocolate manufacturer Ludwig Weinrich, where she has been responsible for developing all aspects of the Spanish market. Prior to Weinrich, she was an independent consultant for four years, following seven years at STECO, which was acquired by IFCO in 2008. Here, Aragones spearheaded the rapid growth of the Spanish market, making STECO Spain the largest subsidiary of STECO International by a wide margin. Her previous career also includes successes at CHEP and ARC Eurobanan.

"I speak for all our management and staff when I express how grateful we are for Manuel’s hard work and dedication over the past 18 years," said Wolfgang Orgeldinger, CEO of IFCO Systems and Group President RPC. "I’m looking forward to continuing to work with Pierre-Olivier as our new VP IFCO South Europe and have every confidence he will deliver the same great results as he has in France. I also look forward to welcoming Lucia Aragones in June as our new country manager in Spain. Her extensive experience in the fields of RPC pooling, leadership and business development makes her an excellent fit for the position. With these two executives, we’ll continue to build on our excellent results and successes in southern Europe."

Additional information

IFCO is the leading global provider of reusable packaging solutions for fresh foods, serving customers in 50+ countries. IFCO operates a pool of over 290 million Reusable Packaging Containers (RPCs) globally, which are used for over 1.3 billion shipments of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, bread, and other items from suppliers to grocery retailers every year. IFCO RPCs ensure a better fresh food supply chain by protecting freshness and quality and lowering costs, food waste and environmental impact compared to single-use packaging.

For more information, please contact:

IFCO

Daniela Carbone
VP – Global Marketing

Tel.: +49 (0)89 74491-323
Daniela.Carbone@ifco.com
www.ifco.com

Agency

HBI Helga Bailey GmbH
Corinna Voss, Stefan Schmidt

Tel.: +49 (0)89 99 38 87-30 / -47
ifco@hbi.de
www.hbi.de

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