British manager takes over at Friesland

Friesland Foods Romania, leader of the local dairy market, with turnover worth over 120 million euros in 2007, will have a new managing director – Ian Gearing, as of September 1. From 2003 until now, he has headed Friesland Foods Foremost a part of the Dutch group Friesland Food and one of the largest players on the Thai dairy market. London-born Ian Gearing has been a part of the Friesland team for over 10 years, 5 as Managing Director of Friesland Foods Malaysia and 5 in the same position in Thailand. Gearing will replace Gerbrant de Boer, who, at the end of February, took over as CEO of dairy producer Sole-Mizo in Hungary, a company with annual turnover worth over 300 million dollars. De Boer, 38, has been at the helm of Friesland since the Dutch group’s entry onto the local market in 2000, and has supervised four transactions worth over 17 million euros during his term. Friesland Foods Romania, a company with over 1,500 employees, posted turnover worth 413 million RON (around 123.7 million euros) last year, up 17% on the previous year. The Dutch group holds five plants locally, with the largest one being Industrializarea Laptelui, in Mures county, and Napolact in Cluj.