Kari Daniels appointed SSP UK & Ireland CEO

Travel caterer SSP Group has announced the appointment of Kari Daniels as chief executive of the group’s UK & Ireland region, succeeding Richard Lewis, who will step down from the role and depart the business at the end of the month.

Lewis will continue in a consultative capacity until the end of April while Daniels completes her induction.

Daniels has spent more than 20 years of her career at Tesco, including four years as chief executive of Tesco Ireland with responsibility for more than 150 stores and 13,000 colleagues. Prior to this, she was Tesco UK’s commercial director. She is also a non-executive director at Topps Tiles.

Patrick Coveney, chief executive of SSP Group, said: “We are delighted to welcome Kari to SSP. Her extensive knowledge and experience of both retail and food industries make her an ideal successor to Richard in the role, and I’m confident she will accelerate growth in our UK business by putting a clear focus on developing our customer offer and innovating our brands and concepts to cater for the changed world we now operate in. Kari joins at an exciting time for the group as we continue to make strong progress in our recovery and deliver our growth strategy to further strengthen our market-leading positions in food travel markets globally.

“I would like to thank Richard for his invaluable contribution to the Group during his time in the role. Richard successfully led SSP UK, Ireland and the Netherlands through the Covid-19 pandemic, managing the needs of the business, our clients and customers through extremely challenging and volatile times and steering the business through the recovery. The board and I wish him the best in his future endeavours.”