How Arla Foods boss went from selling cigarettes to Lurpak and Cravendale
A globe-trotting career that began selling cigarettes at British American Tobacco and has led to heading up the UK arm of dairy giant Arla Foods is maybe not what Bas Padberg could have predicted when he started out in the early 1990s.
The managing director of the group behind Lurpak, Cravendale, Skyr and B.O.B milk now leads 2,000 farmers in the UK and close to 4,000 employees – a long way away from those early days in a “different world”.
Padberg, who took on his current role at the start of 2024, has opened up about his career journey in the latest episode of City PM‘s interview series, Boardroom Uncovered.
In the episode, the MD also reveals what he considers to be the key ingredients to having a successful career as well as his leadership style and the importance of UK farms to the business.
From British American Tobacco to selling Lurpak
Padberg started his career working for British American Tobacco, holding several positions across Europe before joining Arla Foods in 2014.
On his career journey, Padberg said: “British American Tobacco came on my path in 1993 and I have to say, when I entered that building, the first time I came there, I just got connected to the culture of the company.
“I thought it was really cool. And those were different days as well. In those days, they had some exciting brands that I kind of connected to.
“I was still a smoker those days myself as well. So I kind of grew up in that company with some great values.
“But obviously, after close to 15 years that I was there, society changes. You also change yourself in terms of perspective.
“So when I was close to the end of my 30s, I thought, time to do something else.
“I don’t regret it. Honestly, for me as an individual, was a great learning school. It’s a very professional kind of company.”
Secrets to a successful career
Admitting that he “didn’t really have a career plan”, Padberg also outlined what he sees as the key ingredients for being successful.
He said: “I personally think you need to have a little bit of luck. So things come on your path.
“You need to meet the right people and when the opportunity is there, you need to you then need to grab it.
“I wasn’t planning, per se, to go to Asia and we were lucky enough to actually get the opportunity within Ireland, there wasn’t a plan, like Asia now and then the UK after that, or Greece.
“But it was definitely a plan for us as a family, is to have a life abroad as well, just to experience different aspects of the world.”
‘Farm tax’ and National Insurance rise bites sector
The interview took place before Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the introduction of a 20 per cent tax on inherited farming assets above £1m in her Budget on 30 October.
Since then, organisations such as the NFU have been campaigning for the policy to be overturned.
Arla Foods declined to comment on the so-called ‘farm tax’ as well as the rise in employer’s National Insurance contributions.
Since the Budget, major companies have come out to reveal how much extra they would have to pay when the increase comes into force.
Over the weekend Tesco, which Arla Foods is a major supplier to, said it faced a £1bn bill over the next four years.
Higher prices warning from Arla Foods
Earlier this year, Arla Foods warned that customers will face higher prices amid a shortage of milk on a global level.
The company said it “anticipates that volatile market conditions driven by geopolitical tension and uncertainty” will continue but that a positive trend in consumer purchasing power from the first half of 2024 should carry on for the rest of the year.
Arla Foods added that this is expected to “translate into a continued upturn in demand for dairy” but it warned that “it is uncertain how consumers will react to the expected higher retail price levels following the commodity price increases”.
The business also said that the level of uncertainty is “also underlined by a lesser volume of available milk on a global level”.
The wider group expects to report a full-year revenue of between €13.4bn-€13.9bn and a profit within the range of between 2.8 per cent and 3.2 per cent.
For 2023, the group’s UK arm increased its revenue by 2.4 per cent to £2.6bn following a 17.5 per cent growth in 2022.
Towards the start of 2024, Arla Foods announced plans to spend almost £180m to enable the business to export mozzarella across the world in the next three years.
The company said it was to update its Devon-based creamery, Taw Valley, to include “state-of-the-art technology” and create more than 100 jobs in the region.
Boardroom Uncovered
Boardroom Uncovered is City PM‘s flagship on-camera interview series, featuring the top bosses of the biggest and best-known companies operating in the UK.
Previous guests have included the likes of Sir Tim Martin, the founder and chairman of pub giant Wetherspoon, Graham Bell, the CEO of B&Q, and the founder and CEO of Pensionbee, Romina Savova.
Boardroom Uncovered has also featured IKEA’s UK&I CEO, Peter Jelkeby, the CEO of the Virgin Group, Josh Bayliss, the president of Robinhood UK, Jordan Sinclair, and the CEO of Purplebricks, Sam Mitchell.
To catch up with all the previous episodes, click here.