Claire Holland named as new Q Guild Manager
The Q Guild of Butchers has announced the appointment of Claire Holland as its new manager. Claire will take up her post on Monday September 4th.
Claire is a well-known figure in the meat marketing industry having worked previously for MLC, BPEX and AHDB. She started at the Meat & Livestock Commission when it was based at Milton Keynes in the early 1990`s, working within trade marketing alongside the Regional Trade Development Officers (TDO`s) on promotional initiatives and campaign kits for butchers. Claire was also involved with the legendary food event `British Sausage Week` and in her later BPEX days was a key member of the organising team behind the week, which is still going strong 25+ years later.
In 2000 Claire changed her focus from trade to consumer marketing and was key in developing consumer campaigns encouraging people to buy, cook and eat red meat. These included recipe based campaign initiatives such as the `Tim Nice But Dim` lamb campaign and one of the first St Georges Day beef campaigns utilising print, radio, TV and online media. She was also a key member of the organising committee for the MLC trade focused British Meat Awards.
When devolution hit the meat industry she switched to BPEX (latterly AHDB) where she ran its pork and pork product campaigns, promotional kits and BPEX Regional butchers roadshows. After BPEX merged into AHDB and moved to Stoneleigh Claire travelled between Milton Keynes and Stoneleigh for a few years until 2014 when she had a break to develop her interest in digital marketing. Since then she has been supporting the Institute of Meat and ftc (Food & Drink Training & Education Council) helping to drive their training, education and apprenticeship schemes through digital and social marketing.
Claire commented: `I`m really looking forward to working with the Q Guild and its members. It will be great to work with some familiar faces again and get to know even more of our most talented craft butchers.` Claire lives in Buckingham and is a member of LIPS (Ladies in Pigs) and the Institute of Meat.
Q Guild Chairman, Mark Turnbull has said: `I am delighted to announce the appointment of Claire Holland as the new Q Guild General Manager. Claire is a familiar figure in the industry and many of our members will know her from her many years at the MLC, BPEX at AHDB. Claire brings with her a wealth of experience and knowledge and I`m looking forward to working with her, continuing to implement our five year plan.`