IN Brief:
- Steve Challouma has joined The Compleat Food Group as its first chief growth officer following senior roles at Nomad Foods.
- Jo Smith, formerly of Hilton Foods and Greencore, is expected to start as chief product officer later in October.
- Compleat reports almost £1.5bn in annual revenue, more than 6,800 employees and a network of 20 sites.
The Compleat Food Group has appointed Steve Challouma as its first chief growth officer and Jo Smith as chief product officer, establishing separate leadership responsibilities for category development and innovation across its UK food operations. Challouma has already joined the manufacturer, while Smith is expected to start later in October 2026. Their remits bring commercial planning and the practical development of food ranges into two defined senior positions within a business spanning chilled meals, savoury pastry, dips, soups, sauces and plant-based products.
Challouma joins after 19 years at Nomad Foods, where he most recently served as chief marketing officer. His previous work included commercial strategy, category performance and responsibility for brands such as Birds Eye, Goodfella’s, Aunt Bessie’s and Findus. He also ran Birds Eye in the UK and Ireland and worked across Nomad's international business. Compleat says his new role will bring together group strategy, category vision, consumer insights and commercial execution, reflecting the need to coordinate decisions across multiple product categories rather than manage a single brand.
Smith joins from Hilton Foods Group, where she was NPD and innovation director, after earlier leading product development for Greencore's Food to Go business. Her responsibilities at Compleat will centre on the progression of new products from concept and recipe development to commercial ranges. The appointment places someone with chilled private-label experience in charge of a portfolio in which retailer specifications, manufacturing feasibility, ingredient supply and launch schedules need to be agreed together.
Since its formation in 2021, Compleat has grown into a business reporting more than 6,800 colleagues across 20 sites and annual revenue approaching £1.5bn. Its scale is spread across different production formats. A savoury pastry operation has to coordinate dough handling, filling and baking; a chilled sauce line manages viscosity and filling behaviour; and a prepared-meal line combines cooking, component dosing, cooling and final packing. Each follows a different route from an initial product brief to repeatable manufacture.
A retailer asking for a new recipe, portion size or packaging format will need its supplier to establish whether the necessary process is available at an existing site. The answer depends on line configuration, changeover time and the food safety controls required for the revised specification. Changes to an ingredient can influence cooking performance, allergen segregation, cleaning procedures or shelf life. Where an existing line can accommodate the specification, commissioning and validation can be different from those required for a new manufacturing process. These are established features of food production, providing operational context for the new leadership roles.
Chilled products introduce particularly close coordination between the development and technical teams. During formulation, differences in water content, acidity, particle size or sauce stability can change filling accuracy and finished texture. Packaging selection has to match the product's characteristics and distribution needs, while manufacturing must maintain validated hygiene and temperature controls. A product with an attractive commercial proposition still needs an achievable production specification and a shelf life supported by appropriate testing before it can enter regular retail supply.
Compleat supplies own-label products alongside branded ranges, bringing different forms of customer accountability into the same manufacturing network. A retailer's own-label brief normally specifies ingredients, pack presentation, price expectations and a launch date. Brand development has to preserve identity and consistency as products move between outlets. Both require coordination with procurement and factory teams over ingredient availability, scheduling and the impact of changeovers when different recipes or pack sizes share equipment.
Nick Reade, Compleat's UK managing director, linked the appointments to experience in customer relationships, category management and product innovation. Challouma's background in international branded food provides a commercial perspective, while Smith's previous work in chilled development brings experience of translating retailer requirements into manufactured products. The company has confirmed their responsibilities and start timings, but has not attached a factory investment programme to the personnel changes.
The product function will also have to manage the handover between development and regular manufacture, when a recipe moves from trial batches into repeated production. Standardised ingredient specifications, approved supplier records and agreed quality checks allow technical teams to establish whether product attributes remain consistent from batch to batch. Commercial teams then need to reflect those requirements in customer discussions about timing and range changes.
Their first practical work will therefore take place within Compleat's existing operating structure: setting category priorities, organising product development and coordinating the commercial requirements of customers with the capabilities of individual sites. Subsequent range launches, customer contracts and published investment decisions will provide evidence of how those priorities translate into production. The October appointments establish who will direct that work and the areas for which each executive is responsible.
