Birds Eye Iglo chief executive Martin Glenn set to depart

By Matthew Chapman, marketingmagazine.co.uk, Tuesday, 08 January 2013 08:00AM

Birds Eye chief executive and former PepsiCo marketer Martin Glenn is poised to leave the company after six years at the helm.

Martin Glenn: poised to leave Birds Eye Iglo

Glenn's departure comes as the brand's owner, private-equity firm Permira, struggles to find a buyer for Birds Eye's parent company, Iglo Group. It is not known whether Glenn has a job to go to.

Attempts to sell Iglo to another private-equity house broke down in July last year, after BC Partners and Blackstone refused to match Permira's asking price.

Glenn, a former Cadbury Schweppes marketer, took up the position as Birds Eye chief executive in November 2006, following Permira's acquisition of Iglo Group from Unilever for £1.2bn.

Last April, prior to the breakdown of discussions with BC Partners and Blackstone, Glenn told The Independent that 'a good business will always find a buyer, and we are a good businessÕ.
Glenn moved to Birds Eye from PepsiCo, where he had held the role of UK & Ireland chief executive, having joined the company 15 years previously as a marketer.

He was responsible for hiring former England football star Gary Lineker to promote Walkers crisps; during Glenn's time at PepsiCo, Walkers increased its share of the crisps market from 29% to 67%.

Birds Eye has evolved its marketing over the past few years away from its Captain Birdseye character. Its recent UK advertising has featured a polar bear puppet called Clarence, voiced by US actor Willem Dafoe.

The character is named after Clarence Birdseye, the US inventor who developed the quick-freeze process.

Permira and Glenn both declined to comment.

Martin Glenn CV

• 1981-84 Brand manager, Cadbury Schweppes
• 1988-92 Marketing manager, UK & Germany, Mars Petcare
• 1992-2003 Marketing manager rising to marketing director, PepsiCo UK & Ireland
• 2003-06 Chief executive, PepsiCo UK & Ireland
• 2006-13 Chief executive, Birds Eye Iglo

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk