Christian Tougaard joins Tomra Processed Food

Tomra Food has appointed Christian Tougaard as regional sales director EMEA for its Processed Food division. The appointment follows the company’s reorganisation earlier this year into two business areas, fresh and processed.

Tougaard previously spent 12 years at Alfa Laval, managing business organisation development in various roles during a period when the business grew significantly.

He will work closely with the processed food division’s team, partners, and customers across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He reports directly to Karel Strubbe, vice president and head of global sales of Processed Food, who was promoted this January from his previous role as regional sales director EMEA.

Strubbe said the changes are part of the company’s strategy to tailor sorting and peeling solutions very precisely to the specialised needs of individual food categories.

“They are also part of our ongoing initiatives to work even more closely with customers. By really understanding our customers’ operational challenges and needs, we equip them with the best possible optical sorting and peeling solutions – and valuable data analysis – to help them improve efficiencies and reduce the total cost of ownership, creating higher profitability,” he commented.

“Christian Tougaard was selected for this role not only for his experience but also for his customer-centric mindset, which is consistent with our values. He has demonstrated a strong focus on tailoring solutions precisely to customers’ needs.

“Christian has extensive business-to-business sales experience, working with processing solutions to the global food and environment industries.”

Tougaard said he was attracted to the company by its leadership in innovative optical and peeling sorting solutions, the people he’d met at the company, and its focus on sustainability.

“Tomra is solving important challenges such as food safety, food quality, reducing food loss, creating better working conditions in food processing, and enabling food processors to keep up with demand,” he said.

“I am very excited about the growth potential and the challenges of taking the business and organisation to the next level.”