Tuesday 17 December 2024 7:33 am

Haribo boss: How I went from being too ‘optimistic and challenging’ to leading sweet giant

The UK boss of Haribo has revealed how he’s gone from being too “optimistic and challenging” at the start of his career working for Heineken to more of a realist now he’s leading one of the UK’s largest confectionary makers.

Jon Hughes has been in the top job at a Pontefract-headquartered company, which also makes Maoam, since the end of 2018.

Speaking on the latest edition of City PM’s Boardroom Uncovered on-camera interview series, the UK managing director reflected on how he’s changed since he first started out and what advice he would give his younger self.

He also spoke about how Haribo goes about inventing new sweets, Yorkshire’s rich history of confectionary making and whether he’s ever been tempted to take a sweet or two from the production line during a factory tour.

Hughes said: “I’ve always firmly believed that your first job, if you do want to develop your career, the first thing you have to do is be as good as you can be at the job you’ve got and not worry too much about what might come next.

“I think that’s probably good advice that’s serve me ok so far.”

He added: “I think in the past, it certainly my early days I was probably I could have been too optimistic, perhaps a little bit too challenging sometimes.

“It’s difficult when you’re ambitious and optimistic and you want to move at a really fast pace.

“Sometimes you have to temper that with a little bit of a little bit of realism.

“I like to think that I’ve probably not slowed down too much, but I think I’m probably a little bit more realistic now than perhaps I was when I started about the pace of achievement and the pace of change.”

‘We don’t mind failing’

On the culture of Haribo in the UK, Hughes said: “We try to see the world as perhaps a child would see it. And perhaps one of the best examples of that, and the way we approach it in business is we’re prepared to try again.

“We don’t mind failing. We don’t mind, you know, as a kid, when you’re learning to ride a bike, you know, you fall off, you get back on, you try again, and then once you’ve mastered that, it becomes fun and you really enjoy it.

“And that’s the kind of spirit we try to encourage everybody at Haribo, to take on, you know, when they’re thinking about work.”

The UK arm of Haribo is headquartered in Yorkshire.

‘We’re not breakfast, lunch or tea’

Addressing if there is a difficulty in marketing a product with no nutritional value, Hughes said: “What our consumers tell us is that they absolutely understand that Haribo is a treat. There’s no hiding it.

“We’re not breakfast, lunch or tea. We are there as a treat. And we’re there to bring a little bit of joy into people’s lives. And consumers understand that. They recognise that.

“So the marketing that we do is really about helping them to understand the range of products that we’ve got and the different tastes and profiles and textures that we put out.”

Sweet success for Haribo

The interview comes after City PM reported in July that Haribo had achieved record sales for the second year in a row as a string of new seasonal product launches continued to tempt consumers.

Haribo grew its turnover to £270m in 2023, up from £218m in the year before.

Hairbo’s UK export sales increased by 20 per cent compared to the year before, while domestic sales grew 24 per cent.

But despite growing its sales, Haribo’s UK pre-tax profit dipped to £31m from £35m in the year before, as it said inflation continued to impact its margins.

Haribo’s accounts for 2024 are due to be filed with Companies House by the end of June 2025.