AAK appoints new CEO

The role will see Westman moving to food from the car industry. He previously held the position of senior vice president Europe and managing director of the BlankLight division at Shiloh Industries.

Headquartered in Ohio, USA and with annual revenue of around $1 billion (€0.84bn), Shiloh Industries manufactures lightweighting, noise and vibration equipment for the car industry, employing some 3,600 people.

Chairman of the board of directors Mikael Ekdahl said AAK stood to benefit from having someone from outside the food industry join the company.

”We will have a CEO with broad industrial and international experience. Johan Westman has over the last ten years successfully developed companies to drive shareholder value through profitability improvements, organic growth as well as global expansion. I am confident that Johan will continue to develop AAK in the best possible way.”​

Westman added: “Under the leadership of the group management, the company [AAK] has seen strong sales and profit growth. ​Together we will continue this growth journey and take AAK to the next level.”​

Taking up the position sometime before 1 June 2018, Westman will replace Fredrik Nilsson, the company’s chief financial officer (CFO) and head of corporate communications who has been acting as interim CEO.

Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, AAK supplies plant-based fats for the food, chocolate, confectionary and cosmetics industries, as well as vegetable lubricants for machinery and ingredients in animal feeds.

It has production sites in Belgium, Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, Uruguay and the USA.