Burger King shakes up Euro team

Burger King has moved UK and Ireland sales and marketing director John Prior into the new position of new product development director for European markets.

He will be replaced by Lorraine Thomson, global strategic marketing manager at Guinness, another Diageo-owned company, where she is responsible for global brand strategy for the Kilkenny brand. She was previously head of marketing for take-home at Whitbread Beer Company.

Prior’s new position will involve co-ordinating new products for Burger King Europe, Middle East and Africa# (EMA), which has a strategic role across the region. This year Burger King announced that it had increased operating profits by 19 per cent to 99m, “due mainly to the turnaround in European operations”. The closure of its loss making French operation helped to turn last year’s losses into profit.

A Burger King spokeswoman says Prior will supervise the development of new sandwiches and menus for Germany, where there are 156 restaurants and Spain, where there are 137. There are also operations in Gibraltar, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway.

The creation of Prior’s new post follows the appointment of Tulin Tuzel as senior vice-president for research and development for Burger King USA.

Under Burger King Corporation chief executive Dennis Malamatinas the role of new product development has been elevated.

This year the chain has introduced the Big King sandwich and new crispy fries.

Prior will report to David Williams, the president of Burger King Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Recommended

Public blasts use of swear words in ads

Marketing Week

Public opinion has hardened against advertisements containing swearing, rude gestures and homosexuality. According to research from the Advertising Standards Authority, 81 per cent of the 1,000 people surveyed agreed that “the use of bad language or rude gestures should never be allowed” in press ads, compared with 71 per cent in a similar ASA study […]

The Godfather

Marketing Week

David Abbott’s retirement as chairman of Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO will leave a large hole at the heart of the agency and indeed in the UK advertising business as a whole. One colleague, who describes him as “the soul” of AMV, is pessimistic.”The real challenge is how does the agency keep the cultural values alive when […]