The new chief executive of Macphie has declared he has no plans to "rip up the rule book" at the long-established Scottish food giant as he underlined its international growth ambitions.

Ed Widdowson was named the new leader of the family-owned business, which has around 300 employees across two sites in Aberdeenshire and Uddingston, earlier this month.

Part of the fourth generation of the Macphie family who founded the firm nearly 100 years ago, he moved into the top job finishing touches are being put to a new customer demonstration facility in Dubai.

In his first interview since moving becoming chief executive Mr Widdowson, who was most recently Macphie’s director of strategy, people, and sustainability, told The Herald he is aware of his role in safeguarding the business for future generations declaring that “evolution” will the watchword under his leadership.

And he has no plans to “rip up” a way of working that has served the company well for nearly a century.

“This is a 97-year-old business,” Mr Widdowson said. “I have been directly involved in it for eight years. I have got no desire to come in and rip up the rulebook and start doing something entirely different, or doing things in an entirely different way.

“It is an evolution, it is a gradual process, and that is what we have been managing over the last 97 years and four generations. We are on a good trajectory, we have had a really good run, and my ambition is to continue that by doing more of what are doing and trying to do it better. But we are not suddenly going to be changing direction anytime.”

The new facility in Dubai, which is scheduled to open in June, will cater for the firm's long-established customers in the Middle East, some of which have been buying Macphie products for two generations. But in the longer term it is hoped the base can be used as a “staging post” to support customers who have ambitions to expand further east.

Mr Widdowson, nephew of former chairman Alastair Macphie, said: “The backdrop is we have got some long-established international business, particularly in the Middle East. We have got relationships with partners out there that go back 40-plus years.

“We have got roots in that region. We have got a proven business model that works in the UK and how we go about developing and selling our products to our core UK market. What we are doing is replicating that model in the Middle East.

“We are in the process of developing a Dubai customer centre, where we will be able to show customers how our products will work for them and get their support and feedback through that process to expand in that region.

“Having spent time there, their vision and ambition in that region is quite inspirational and it is huge, and they have got a proven track record of delivering. When you look at Dubai in 1985 and look at Dubai today, they do what they say they will. Against a backdrop of 1% [GDP] growth in the UK, if we are going to continue are growth trajectory, we need to be looking at taking our products into more markets. With our existing footprint in the Middle East, this is our natural next step and a very exciting one for us.”

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He added: “It does not change our business model. We will be continuing to produce in the UK and exporting to that region.”

Asked which Macphie products are popular in the Middle East, Mr Widdowson said its core bakery and “heritage” products perform strongly and highlighted the potential to grow its “fast-growing” sauces in the region. Macphie has been working to give its sauce products “greater shelf-life, bigger flavour and greater usability for operators, particularly in the foodservice sector”. He said: “That is the fastest-growing part of our business and the sector our there out there plays really nicely into that product range”.

Mr Widdowson noted the new facility will offer space for customers to meet the company and work with its chefs. “It’s a full catering proposition and what they would expect to find within their [own] business,” he said. “So we can replicate how they are making their finished products within the facility.”

He added: “It is also a staging post. They as a region are historically traders because they are the intermediary between east and west geographically. We have some key partner customers that are looking to expand further east from that. This would be a good staging post.”

Mr Widdowson, who succeeded Andy Stapley as chief executive, has been directly involved with Macphie for the last eight years, having joined after spells with Procter & Gamble in the UK and Switzerland. At P&G, he worked on brands such as Gillette, Pampers, and Oral-B before a spell as head of sales for Duracell UK.

However, he has been involved with Macphie "indirectly forever”, and recalls childhood holidays with his grandparents in Aberdeenshire and the company a constant backdrop. He said “it is all part of the DNA really”.

In terms of the current business operating environment, Mr Widdowson highlighted the challenge posed by the imminent rise in employer national insurance contributions, which he said will have a “significant six-figure” impact. This follows a sustained period of cost inflation in the food industry that has seen sharp increases in energy and commodity prices.

Mr Widdowson said costs have now “hit a period of stability” compared with three years ago, but said there are still “pockets of inflation that are still running hot linked to various factors, cocoa being a well-documented one”.

“Three poor harvests on the bounce has led to the price of cocoa being significantly ahead of where it has ever been before and showing no signs of cooling off at the moment,” he said.

Mulling the outlook, Mr Widdowson said: “We are coming towards the end of our year and we will deliver another year of double-digit growth. Looking into next year, we are expecting more of the same. The growth has been very buoyant since Covid, and we are doing a significant amount of investment in our manufacturing footprint to not just keep up with demand but to expand capacity such that we will be able to increase our business significantly into the next five-year horizon.

“We have made a big capital investment in our core facilities in the UK, both up in Aberdeenshire and at our Tannochside facility near Glasgow, that has taken the original factories and given them another generational lease of life. We are making them good for another generation.”