Ben Hughes Appointed As New General Manager, Americas

ORANGE COUNTY, CA –  As a sign of Zespri’s desire to build further on it’s great success with SunGold Kiwifruit, Zespri is appointing Ben Hughes to the newly created role of General Manager, Americas.  The launch of Zespri’s proprietary SunGold variety, with its tropical-sweet taste and longer shelf life, has revolutionized the kiwifruit category. Kiwifruit is on trend, outpacing total fruit sales by 5+ points and the driver of that growth is Zespri’s SunGold Kiwifruit.

“I’m excited to relocate to the United States and focus solely on the Americas as we reconfigure our business structure and build our team to help our customers grow their business, and develop local supply options to enable us to become a truly 12-month brand in this region,” said Hughes.

Hughes joined Zespri in 2012, based in Dubai, as Regional Manager for the Middle East, Africa and Indian sub-continent. His role involved overseeing sales, marketing and operations. In 2014, he was promoted and his role expanded to include the additional regions of North, Central and South America. He managed a team of 29 people, selling $200M worth of kiwifruit each year.  With strong double-digit growth globally and an expanding team, Zespri split the region Hughes was managing to enable greater focus. Hughes relocated to the main office in Newport Beach, CA to assume the General Manager, Americas position. 

Prior to joining Zespri, Hughes worked for Fonterra Brands, based in Dubai, in a variety of marketing and business development roles covering the Middle East, Africa and the former Russian Federation countries. He also worked for Goodman Fielder & Bluebird Foods in marketing and category roles while in New Zealand. Hughes holds a master’s degree in marketing and international management from Waikato University.

ABOUT ZESPRI

Zespri International exports premium kiwifruit to 59 countries and is recognized as one of the world's most successful horticulture marketing companies. Based in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, Zespri is 100 percent owned by current or past NZ kiwifruit growers, and employs around 500 people in New Zealand, Asia, Europe and the Americas. The Zespri brand is the global leader in premium quality kiwifruit.  On behalf of 2,500 growers in New Zealand and 1,200 growers based elsewhere, Zespri manages kiwifruit innovation and supply management, distribution management and marketing of Zespri Green, Zespri SunGold and Zespri Organic. For more information on Zespri North America, please visit www.zesprikiwi.com.

Source: Zespri International