Meat marketing chief nets top job

Gwyn Howells, marketing director of the Meat & Livestock Commission throughout the BSE crisis, is being promoted to become the organisation’s next director general.

Gwyn Howells, marketing director of the Meat & Livestock Commission throughout the BSE crisis, is being promoted to become the organisation’s next director general.

Howells will take over from director general Colin Maclean when he retires in April 1999.

Howells helped unify the meat industry’s sales and marketing efforts for beef, lamb and pork with the Recipe for Love TV advertising campaign, by BMP DDB, launched in the aftermath of the BSE disaster.

Don Curry, chairman of the MLC, says: “As marketing director, Gwyn has masterminded the high-profile positioning of British beef, pork and lamb and has spearheaded the recovery of British beef sales from one of the biggest crises ever to hit any industry.”

Howells also helped to launch the Minced Beef Quality Mark.

According to the MLC, beef sales dropped by 40 per cent in March 1996. They have since recovered and now stand at only five per cent below the 1995 level – an increase the MLC claims is partly due to the programme led by Howells.

In 1997, the MLC spent 27m promoting British meat and secured an additional 2.25m in funds from the European Union for the beef recovery programme.

Prior to joining the MLC in 1992, Howells was marketing director for Reebok UK.

Before that, he was director of brand and trade marketing for Courage, where he was responsible for launching Miller Lite in the UK.