Navitas Group, the food safety and health & safety business, has appointed Stuart Coetzee to the role of VP Sales and Marketing as it continues to take its food safety technology into new overseas markets and attract global clients.
Stuart’s experience combines hardware and software sales roles with tech development for the hospitality sector. He joins the company from the AI-focused food wastage scale-up Winnow and prior to that worked for POS hospitality technology provider TISSL, where he most recently spent two years in the United States setting up operations for the business in New York.
Over the past 10 years his focus on the restaurant technology space has seen him develop leading-edge tools and services for Michelin-star chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, Jason Atherton and Heston Blumenthal, as well as major corporations including facilities services business ISS; hospitality group IHG; and supermarket chain Morrisons.
In his new role Stuart will lead the rapidly expanding Navitas sales and marketing team, ensuring the business hits its revenue targets by securing new enterprise client deals.
Stuart comments: “I was attracted to Navitas because of the way it’s innovating and disrupting the food safety and health and safety space. In particular, I was excited by the potential its technology has to solve a major problem that commercial kitchens have with digitisation and the challenges of maintaining consistent food safety processes. I’m all about anything that gives chefs more time on food, whether that’s time back in their day or control over their kitchen – Navitas does both!”
Ben Gardner, CEO of Navitas Group, adds: “We searched far and wide, both within our industry and externally, to find the right person for this role. Stuart impressed us with a deep knowledge of our complicated market and showed considerable experience in both hardware and software sales, joining us from Winnow. It’s a business with a fantastic reputation in our industry and Stuart clearly learnt a lot from his time there. Added to that, his experience working in the United States is also going to be a huge asset to us as we bring more global clients on board.”
