Hofseth Biocare ASA: Boosts Sales & Marketing in its Consumer Health division by hiring ex-Novartis and ex-GSK senior executive Andy Gill

HBC is delighted to announce the hiring of Andy Gill as VP within HBC’s Consumer Health Division from January 2021. Mr Gill is a highly accomplished commercial leader with over 20 years’ experience in driving growth in the Healthcare and FMCG industries. He has held several senior commercial leadership positions in both Novartis Consumer Health and GSK Consumer Health spanning areas such as customer and category management, consumer marketing, commercial excellence and strategic planning. Mr Gill has broad experience in grocery, pharmacy and e-commerce channels working across multiple consumer healthcare categories and global brands. He has developed an extensive contact network across the global healthcare industry and is passionate about driving growth across a dynamic healthcare and retail landscape.

Mr Gill has played a major role in developing many internationally recognised brands, including Voltaren, Otrivin, Panadol, Sensodyne and Parodontax. He also has long established relationships with the largest pharmacies in the US such as the Walgreens Boots Alliance and AS Watsons, amongst others. His extensive global experience and knowledge with regards to placing health care & OTC products into the hands of consumers should prove an invaluable addition to HBC´s product development, strategy and sales efforts.

HBC can now accelerate its journey to commercialise and shift over 5000t of output in commoditised animal feed markets, towards much higher value human and pet supplement markets through Mr Gill’s access to international pharmacy and drug store chains and then direct to the consumer via white label and own branded products.

“I am excited to be joining HBC at this critical time as they expand their commercial operations and accelerate their growth. The global consumer trends of increased self-care and demand for natural products presents a huge opportunity for HBC to meet these needs through their state-of-the-art production facilities and innovative product portfolio. Through my broad customer network and deep understanding of the consumer health industry I am really looking forward to helping them unlock their full potential over the next few years.”, Andy Gill says.

Mr Gill´s recruitment was taken after a capital raise in October, as the start of a precise and targeted strategy to selectively recruit experienced sales executives out of tier one, global pharmaceutical and nutraceutical consumer health businesses to drive sales of HBC´s unique, sustainable, science and claim-backed natural health solutions.

Mr Gill´s role will help and complement HBC´s engagement with specialised distributors B2B with global reach and its direct sales efforts B2C via online platforms and the Hofseth Group´s established retail network.

He is also expected to start the process of attracting an expert team of professionals whose established network will quickly absorb HBC goods and whose knowledge of product development and commercial strategy will mean HBC has a structured plan to build out the business in the interest of creating long term shareholder value.

“Hiring Andy Gill is an extremely significant milestone for HBC and we are delighted to have him onboard. Hiring a senior leader from one of the world’s leading Consumer Health companies after nearly 25 years of combined experience at Novartis and GSK speaks volumes about the opportunity and current outlook at HBC. His knowledge, expertise and experience are testament to the effort and ambitions of the HBC team. Leading healthcare and FMCG companies and professionals alike are starting to understand just how differentiated our clean, sustainable marine by-products are and the scale of our opportunity. Our manufacturing patents cover the enzymatic hydrolysis process not only for Atlantic salmon enzymatic hydrolysis, but people forget the patents are also for all marine species.  Establishing a global Consumer Health sales business will enable us to not only grow sales but also to extend the range of products using other species in our second manufacturing facility in the near future. All of our by-products (oil, proteins and collagen) have a very differentiated evidence-based health benefits and Andy’s addition is an enormous step forward for us to begin the process of selling more both B2B and B2C”, says CEO Roger Hofseth of Hofseth BioCare ASA.

Andy Gill has today indirectly purchased 250,000 shares in HBC at market prices, through a 2.27 % shareholding in Brilliant Invest AS.