David Milner has been appointed CEO of St Pierre Groupe, the business behind America’s number one brioche brand.

Milner, who was responsible for driving international growth at Tyrells and progressing the Lily’s Kitchen pet food brand, has taken on the CEO role to drive the next stage of growth for the UK-based company. 

St Pierre Groupe boasts a retail value of a quarter of a billion dollars, after substantial growth of its branded propositions. Its flagship brand, St Pierre Bakery, has doubled in value in the US over the last two years and is responsible for establishing brioche as a profitable sub-category with American retailers. 

As non-executive chairman at St Pierre Groupe, Milner spent the past three years in a strategic role but will now implement growth plans internationally as CEO, alongside the senior leadership team. 

The appointment is part of a long-term strategy to bolster the board of directors with unrivalled experience in U.S. and UK markets. Since 2018, St Pierre Groupe has grown its turnover by 68 percent.

In 2019, the company was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade and can boast five years of double digit growth. 

David Milner, CEO of St Pierre Groupe comments, “St Pierre Groupe is a phenomenal business, doing bakery differently. Since joining the business in 2018, I’ve worked with the team to achieve incredible growth. Yet there is still huge potential—it is innovative, superior quality and branded. The workforce has increased threefold in 18 months and I’m excited to guide the team to even greater success.”

Paul Baker, founder of St Pierre Groupe adds, “David has been instrumental in our remarkable success in the past three years and appointing him as CEO was a natural next step to prepare us to meet ambitious growth plans.”

As St Pierre Groupe moves into its next phase of development, David Milner will accelerate the international growth, further nurturing relationships in the U.S. and exploring new opportunities to expand the geographic footprint of the business’ brands.

Milner continues, “It’s an incredibly exciting time for the company. A great brand starts with a quality product and St Pierre Groupe has quality products in abundance.

“Across the globe, consumers are shifting to more premium products—COVID simply accelerated the shift, encouraging us to innovate for and elevate everyday meals with our product ranges. As a business we are renowned for working with retailers to deliver exceptional category growth—and we are constantly reviewing the market, consumer habits and our products to ensure this continues”.

David Milner’s appointment as CEO comes with a plan to double the value of the business in the next five years. The company portfolio includes St Pierre—America’s number one brioche brand, and in the UK, Baker Street—an extended life bakery brand—and Paul Hollywood, the UK’s category leader in part-baked bread.

Related: 2019 Bakery of the Year: St Pierre Groupe