Netherlands-based confectionery maker Royal Fassin has named former pet-food and dairy executive Jeroen van Esseveld as its new CEO.

Van Esseveld will start in the role on 1 September.

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The company and van Esseveld did not confirm who he was succeeding as chief executive when approached by Just Food.

“My main goal for the coming years is to further fuel the current growth and make sure Royal Fassin can make the next step in her level of maturity,” van Esseveld told Just Food in a short statement.

Before joining the confectioner, van Esseveld was the managing director of Belgium-based Group Depré’s petfood division from April 2020. He worked for FrieslandCampina for almost 15 years from 2003 to 2018 in various roles in sales, marketing, and general management. He also owns Trainspot, a company that develops and sells Microsoft Office training.

“Happy and proud, I would like to let you know that I will be stepping into a new challenge as of 1 September. After a number of very instructive years in the petfood industry – still underestimated by many in terms of complexity and substantive challenges – I am going back to human nutrition and in two weeks I will start as general director / CEO at Royal Fassin in ‘s-Heerenberg,” van Esseveld posted on LinkedIn.

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Royal Fassin is headquartered in ‘s-heerenberg, in the Gelderland province of the Netherlands. The company specialises in fruit-gum sweets and liquorice.

It has two factories in the country and its website states it employs more than 400 staff. The group exports to more than 50 countries but its largest markets are the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, France and the US.

The enterprise owns the brands Katja and Fascini,. It also produces private-label products.

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