Thomas Ridley at Rougham, near Bury St Edmunds, appoints Jon Marlow, formerly of Carlsberg, Twinings, Ryvita and Divine Chocolate, as new managing director

A Suffolk food and drink wholesaler has announced a new managing director who previously held the same role at a Fairtrade chocolate company.

Thomas Ridley Foodservice, based at Rougham near Bury St Edmunds, has appointed Jon Marlow who is a former sales director and managing director for Divine Chocolate.

Jon replaces Justin Godfrey who spent more than 20 years growing and developing his family’s wholesale food business and won the Lifetime Achievement award at the Bury Free Press West Suffolk Business Awards last year.

On his new role, Jon said: “I am really looking forward to bringing my knowledge and experience to the business and helping to guide the Thomas Ridley team through this next part of the company's chapter.

“I am joining a large, established company in a great part of the world and can’t wait to work with all of these fantastic people on our future within foodservice.”

Prior to Thomas Ridley and Divine Chocolate, Jon has also held a number of sales, marketing and leadership roles in big brand businesses such as Carlsberg, Twinings, Ryvita and Jordans.

Thomas Ridley Foodservice supplies more than 2,000 customers across East Anglia, London, Kent and the Southeast, ranging across education, healthcare, leisure and hospitality.