Birds Eye's Long-Serving Marketer Resurfaces at a GBP1.5bn Food Group
Updated: 1 day ago
Steve Challouma, former CMO of Nomad Foods and Birds Eye with nearly 30 years in food, has joined The Compleat Food Group as its first chief growth officer, with Jo Smith as chief product officer, as the group's revenue approaches GBP1.5bn.
The Appointment
Steve Challouma, one of the best-known marketers in UK food, has resurfaced. The former CMO of Nomad Foods and Birds Eye, with close to 30 years in the category, has joined The Compleat Food Group as its first chief growth officer.
He left Birds Eye in December 2025, and the move is paired with another senior hire: Jo Smith has been named chief product officer, signalling a deliberate build-out of the group's commercial leadership rather than a single opportunistic appointment.
The business behind the hire is substantial. Compleat, whose brands include Wall's Pastry, Wrights and Pork Farms, passed GBP1bn in revenue in the year to March 2025 and is now reported to be approaching GBP1.5bn.
Why the Title Matters
The job is not CMO, it is chief growth officer, and that distinction is the story. Compleat has chosen to frame senior marketing leadership around growth across the whole commercial agenda, not just brand and communications.
It reflects a wider shift. As food groups scale through acquisition and private-label strength, they increasingly want a senior leader who can connect brand, innovation and commercial strategy under one remit, rather than a classic marketing silo that owns only the advertising.
Pairing a growth officer with a chief product officer is telling. It suggests Compleat sees its next leg of growth coming from both demand creation and product development working in lockstep, with neither function left to operate in isolation.
The Marketing Minute Read
We would read the CGO title as a statement of intent. When a GBP1.5bn business reaches outside for a marketer of Challouma's stature and gives them a growth mandate, it is buying ambition, not maintenance.
Senior talent movements like this are a leading indicator. A heavyweight brand marketer choosing a less famous but fast-scaling group is a signal about where the category's growth energy is heading, and smart observers watch where proven operators place their bets.
It also validates branded over purely private-label thinking in a value-driven market. Hiring a brand builder at this level suggests Compleat intends to compete on brand equity, not just cost, which is a bolder position than most own-label-heavy businesses take.
What Businesses Should Do
If you want transformation, match the title to the mandate. A 'chief growth officer' with cross-commercial scope signals different ambition than a CMO confined to communications, and the title shapes what the role is allowed to touch.
Pair demand and product leadership deliberately. Compleat appointed a growth officer and a product officer together because the two functions compound when aligned and stall when they are not.
Watch where senior talent lands. When proven brand builders move to scaling challengers, it is often an early read on where category growth is shifting, and a useful signal for your own competitive planning.
Finally, give a new growth leader room to prove the thesis. A chief growth officer brought in for ambition needs a mandate that spans brand, innovation and commercial levers, plus the patience to let brand investment compound. Hire the ambition and then hem it into a narrow communications box and you waste the appointment; the structural choice Compleat has made only pays off if the role is genuinely allowed to reach across the business it was created to grow. Compleat has made the right structural call on paper; the next twelve months will show whether it has the conviction to let a growth agenda actually run the commercial engine, rather than quietly sliding back into a traditional marketing silo.
Quick FAQ
Who is Steve Challouma?
Steve Challouma is a UK food marketer with nearly 30 years in the category, former CMO of Nomad Foods and Birds Eye, who left in December 2025 and has joined The Compleat Food Group as its first chief growth officer.
How big is The Compleat Food Group?
Its brands include Wall's Pastry, Wrights and Pork Farms. Revenue passed GBP1bn in the year to March 2025 and is now reported to be approaching GBP1.5bn.
The job title tells you everything. Compleat didn't hire a CMO to run communications, it hired a chief growth officer to run ambition. When a GBP1.5bn group pulls in a marketer of Challouma's pedigree and pairs him with a product chief, it's betting its next billion comes from brand building, not just cost. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
When the mandate is growth, the title and the pairing of leaders should prove it.
Is 'chief growth officer' a genuinely broader role than CMO, or just a smarter-sounding rebadge?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Marketing Week, The Grocer, Campaign
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
