Exec Team

Meet our executive management team.

Anita Barker (Managing Director)

Anita joined Coldwater Seafoods in 2006 when the company was in financial difficulty and close to closure.She is a passionate foodie having spent the majority of her working life with leading food players such as Bakkavor , Northern Foods and Greencore. Qualifying as an ACA with Arthur Andersen, following an early sponsorship with Lucas Aerospace, she quickly rejoined the manufacturing world and after spending  5 years working with Boots Pharmaceuticals in their International Manufacturing arena. She then joined Greencore as Divisional Finance Director. This was the start of her senior career in food. She subsequently spent 8 years working at Geest in Finance and operational roles at one point leading a £15m IT implementation. Over the years, her focus has mainly been on Innovation and Improvement as a financial leader. After Anita left her Head of Finance role with Geest she took her first steps into managing her own business. Today she is proud to hold the position as MD for a successful and growing chilled seafood company which is fast becoming an Innovative leader in the seafood world. Anita is also Vice Chair of the Humber Seafood Institute Board.

Richard Bales (Finance Director)

Richard joined Coldwater Seafood in May 2011 as Finance Director. He brings with him over twenty years of experience working at Senior Finance level in the UK Food Industry. Richard completed his education and qualified from Sheffield Polytechnic with a degree in Business Studies. His early career included roles with Hawker Siddeley, GEC-Marconi and Stag Furniture Holdings, where he held a number of Finance Management roles. Richard then joined Hazlewood Foods in 1988. He worked with Hazlewood for over twenty years, during which time he saw the Group become part of Greencore plc. Within his time with this group Richard held a number of positions, which included Finance Director, Divisional Finance Director and a Group Finance role. During the latter stages of his career with Greencore he became UK Finance Director in 2005 for Greencore Convenience Foods. Three years on, Richard joined the Findus Group as Financial Director of its chilled division, The Seafood Company. During this time he had responsibility for five seafood businesses around the UK. Richard is now delighted to be able to bring his combination of business management experience and industry knowledge to Coldwater and keen to help his colleagues in shaping and driving the company’s further development.

Dominic Collins (Head of Buying)

Dominic joined Coldwater Seafood in January 2007 as Head of Buying. Dominic was ‘born and bred’ in Grimsby and he has over 20 years of experience in the UK retail and foodservice seafood industry. Dominic has previously worked for Booker, Cumbrian Seafood and Young’s Seafood in senior procurement, commercial and operations roles. Within Coldwater, Dominic’s buying team is responsible for the procurement of all seafood, packaging and ingredients along with several key services to the business. Dominic has extensive knowledge of global seafood procurement and the challenges it brings. He is passionate about the seafood industry and proud of Coldwater’s role in Grimsby’s seafood community and contributes to the Humber Seafood Institute’s UK trade corridor activities. In addition, Dominic heads up Coldwater’s public relations activities.

Lee Clark (Head of Operations)

Lee joined Coldwater Seafood in January 2010 as Head of Operations for our West Site, bringing over 14 years of experience in the Food Industry, during which time he worked in a wide range of product categories. Lee started his academic career in Sports Science and after graduating from Norwich University, he secured employment at United Biscuit on the graduate scheme for General Management. During his time at United Biscuit he quickly realised that a career in food was the way in which he wanted to pursue his career path. From United Biscuit Lee then progressed his management career with Geest, in which he undertook numerous lead positions within operations. In the ten years that Lee operated within Geest he managed to cover a wide range of product categories from ready meals through to Pasta, Bread and Soups & Sauces. His next career move saw Lee join Greencore, again as head of manufacturing but this time in the field of cakes and desserts and working for Europe’s largest Christmas Cake Manufacturer. It is with this Extensive industry knowledge that Lee joined us as part of our Executive Management Team.

John Jukes (Head of Technical)

John was appointed Head of Technical for Coldwater Seafood in November 2006, having served as Technical Manager within the Coldwater business previously. Prior to joining Coldwater, John was Divisional Technical Director (Seafood) for Fisher Group, responsible for a number of UK sites, and the customer technical interface on Seafood with Marks and Spencer. Qualifying with a BSc Degree in Food Science from London South Bank University, John first moved to Birds Eye Walls (Unilever) for manufacturing and management experience. After a number of years in manufacturing, John moved to a Development role with Cargill on added-value poultry and recipe dishes, and then into a Technical Role, before entering the arena of Seafood – at a time when the UK chilled business was growing rapidly. John headed the Technical function at the Redditch site as part of the Rahbekfisk Group A/S where he was responsible for both Technical and engineering functions with a strong emphasis on new product development and new species, particularly shellfish. John has a number of years of Technical management experience within the Food industry with 20+ years in Seafood, recipe dish and high care areas, covering a wide variety of raw materials, products and processes. Today John is pleased to be part of the positive journey Coldwater has made since 2006 in standards, operations and its profile in the seafood industry.

Sarah Blake (Head of M&S Sales & Marketing)

Sarah has been educated and worked in the food industry her whole career starting in National Account Management with Walkers Snack Foods working across the multiple grocery sector. A move to Nestle UK managing household names in Asda Walmart led to a global sales and marketing change management role driving best practices in customer and category management across markets in the Nestle Group. Sarah joined Coldwater Seafood in 2006 responsible for the Tesco Food business, was promoted to NAM for M&S Chilled and Frozen Coated in 2007; during this time Coldwater has stepped changed its position as category leaders for coated fish resulting in increased sales and market share. Sarah was promoted to the Executive board as Head of M&S for Coldwater Seafood UK Ltd with responsibility for sales and marketing in November 2009.

Elaine Neale (Head of HR)

Elaine was appointed to Coldwater Seafood in August 2010 as Head of HR. Elaine has a number of years experience within the food industry with HR, Continuous Improvement and Health and Safety roles within Northern Foods, TSC Foods, Golden Wonder, Campbell’s and Stratford-upon-Avon Foods. Employee engagement and empowering our people to make things happen are key to making the Coldwater Values part of our everyday culture and Elaine and her team are dedicated to ensuring that all our activities are aligned and that our values are respected and delivered. Training and Development is a particular passion and Elaine has forged strong links within the local educational community to ensure that all Coldwater employees will have the opportunity to maximise their many talents. Elaine is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Dipsm through the British Safety Council.

Penny Wood (Head of Innovation)

Penny has been part of the Coldwater team since June 2007. Having spent more than 25 years in food retailing and manufacturing, she has brought a wealth of product expertise and customer knowledge to the business and has helped to create a vibrant NPD function and development facility which reflect the importance of innovation to Coldwater.

A rolling programme of internal and external Food Awareness initiatives helps to strengthen our ability to make high quality innovative products. These include visits to Billingsgate market and, since March 2011, working with an Icelandic Michelin starred Chef. Penny has also led community projects such as Fish Match.

Jonathan Willows (Head of Retail Sales)

Jonathan joined Coldwater Seafood in September 2011 as Head of Retail Sales. He brings with him over twenty years of experience in food manufacturing and retailing. He is a passionate foodie having started his early career working in restaurants in London, Sydney and Melbourne. After gaining a diploma in advanced professional cookery including Patisserie, Jonathan completed his education and qualified from University of Humberside in Food Science and has then spent the majority of his working life with leading food players such as Unilever, Bakkavor and Sainsbury’s. He spent 10 years working for Geest in senior commercial and product development roles before moving into retailing where he headed up innovation and technology in dairy and chilled convenience areas.