Pride Catering restructures management team after 73% growth in three years

Guildford-based Pride Catering Partnership has announced a management restructure as a direct result of sales growth of 73% over the last three years.

The founders of Pride Catering have moved into new roles. Roger Aldridge has become founder director and chief executive while Tim Price is now founder director and chairman.

Joan Gilbert (pictured) has been appointed managing director from her previous role of business development director, where she succeeded in winning significant new business.

Her new role will see her take responsibility for operations, business development and finance functions.

Janet Tulk, joined the business three years ago, has been promoted from operations manager to operations director of Pride's senior living division. Jim Estes, who has been promoted to support manager for the senior living division, will support her.

The company has won more than £3m of new primary and secondary education contracts over the past three years, predominantly as a result of referrals from existing clients.

To support this business sector, Dianne Cook has been promoted to area business support & development manager.

Price explained the motivation behind the restructure: "Pride has been in business for 15 years now and, particularly over the past three years, we have experienced significant growth and developed into new markets such as Assisted and Supported Senior Living, where we've built an excellent reputation.

"We could see the market place for traditional healthcare was under pressure and were keen to be ahead of the curve as the sector evolved, which it has rapidly.

"In order to take the company to the next stage of its evolution and handle our projected new growth, it was imperative for us to invest in strengthening and expanding the senior management team now. It is especially heartening that we could make so many promotions from within our team."