Former Mars executive nets new post at catering giant

Mike Toms, the former marketing director at Mars-owned Master Foods who left after its merger with the European pet-care business, is joining Gardner Merchant, one of the world’s biggest contract caterers.

Toms will be UK marketing director, with responsibility for service brands. These include: Town & County, which handles catering at events such as the Chelsea Flower Show and Wimbledon; Ring & Brymer, which deals with catering at race courses; Kelvin, the North Sea oil rig caterer; and Gardner Merchant, the staff restaurant business.

A Gardner Merchant spokesman says: “We had a marketing director until about a year ago but the job was broken up into constituent parts. We are now recreating that post to give a more central focus to marketing.”

Toms, who was food service director at Master Foods before becoming sales and marketing director, was unavailable for comment as Marketing Week went to press. He will take up his new post in the next fortnight.

He left Master Foods earlier this year after the business was merged with Pedigree Petfoods and renamed Master Brands (MW February 23). Sandra Blaza, general manager for Mars’s Greek operation, was appointed as the first marketing director for the newly- formed organisation.