SALMAN AMIN, the chief executive of pladis, is a man who thrives on transformation.
Since taking the helm of the global snacking giant in February 2019, Amin has not only revitalised the company but has also positioned it as a beacon of innovation, diversity, and sustainable growth.
When Amin joined pladis, he inherited a company with a rich heritage but one that was in need of a modern transformation. pladis, home to iconic brands like McVitie’s, Jacob’s, and Carr’s, was formed in 2016 through the merger of several established businesses. However, the company was struggling with siloed operations and a lack of cohesive vision.
Amin saw potential where others saw challenges. “I quickly realised there was so much more pladis could be,” he told Brunswick Review in an April 2024 interview. “The company wasn’t making the best of its brands, its assets, its crown jewels.”
He undertook a bold transformation plan, called ‘Compete to Win’, focusing on four key pillars: ‘owning the streets, making every penny count, innovating today to fuel tomorrow, and winning as one pladis’. These priorities have not only streamlined operations but have also fostered a culture of collaboration and shared ambition. “The thing that really struck me? The people didn’t know each other,” Amin recalled. “They weren’t a team. But there was a huge amount of pent-up passion and potential. I knew I had to unleash that.”
The results have been remarkable. Since 2019, pladis has achieved a 50 per cent increase in revenue, making it one of the fastest-growing snacking companies in the world. The company’s EBITDA has doubled, and its brands, including McVitie’s and Ülker, have seen significant rejuvenation.
Amin’s ability to balance respect for tradition with a forward-looking approach has been key to this success. “We need to respect the fact that some of our brands are part of the fabric of society,” he has said. “But people’s expectations change, and we have to change with them.”
A major milestone in 2024 was the successful integration of GODIVA into pladis’ £3 billion portfolio. Amin saw immense potential in the premium chocolate brand and swiftly positioned it for aggressive growth in the US and China, where demand for luxury confectionery is surging. With a carefully curated leadership team, including the appointment of former Nike and Sephora executive Steve Lesnard as GODIVA’s president, pladis is set to elevate the brand to new heights.
“pladis is a 180-year-old start up. It combines iconic snacking brands with a start-up's mentality and agility to offer products that continue to meet people's evolving snacking preferences,” Amin commented in April last year, announcing the integration of the GODIVA brand.
“Synonymous with artisanal and beautifully curated chocolates since it was founded in Belgium almost a century ago, GODIVA is a perfect fit within pladis’ global portfolio of beloved brands.”
Another game-changing move was the recent realignment of pladis’ regions. The restructuring, effective from January 2025, consolidates Eastern and Western Europe into a single Europe and Emerging Markets region, optimising synergies within the EU trading bloc.
Beyond financial success, Amin has emerged as a leading advocate for UK manufacturing. At the 2024 Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Annual Conference, he delivered a powerful speech highlighting the UK government’s oversight of traditional industries like food and drink manufacturing. While much of the economic narrative has focused on emerging sectors such as AI and green energy, Amin has steadfastly argued that food and drink – a £38bn industry employing 475,000 people – must be included in the UK’s growth strategy.
“Backing food and drink is not about betting on future growth and employment, it’s about recognising jobs and wages provided today,” Amin said. “But for my sector and others to play their full role in creating the economy we want somethings need to happen. We need government to lead and create a stable and certain regulatory environment in which business can flourish.”
Calling for the business and government to “fly in formation”, he cautioned that a “disproportionate focus” on some industries at the expense of others – like manufacturing, food, drink and agriculture – risks penalising those that have continued to drive the growth of the UK economy for decades.
“Manufacturing, particularly food and drink, is the backbone of our economy, and we cannot afford to marginalise it,” he added.
His advocacy is not just rhetoric – under his leadership, pladis has strengthened its partnerships with British farmers, invested in sustainable packaging, and supported homegrown suppliers.
Amin’s leadership goes beyond profit margins; he is deeply invested in creating a workplace where people from all backgrounds thrive. In 2021, he established pladis’ first-ever Global Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Board, bringing in external experts to challenge the company’s thinking and help foster an inclusive culture.
“As we continue to build a culture that celebrates our differences and values inclusion, we must be challenged by both our colleagues and by external voices. That is one of the key reasons for setting up this board,” Amin commented at the time.
Amin added that he “cared deeply” about the cause and considered it important the workforce reflects the diverse customer base of the business. “My mission is to ensure pladis is a place where diverse, bright, ambitious and passionate people come and thrive,” he said.
He has since spearheaded several initiatives to ensure that pladis reflects the diverse communities it serves. One of the most significant developments in 2024 was the launch of pladis’ global Life Transitions policy for new parents.
The policy, rolling out to all 16,000 colleagues across the 20 countries in which pladis operates, offers a minimum of 36 weeks’ leave, with 18 weeks fully paid, for primary carers, as well as a paid phased return schedule. Secondary carers will receive four weeks’ paid leave and a phased return schedule. The global pledge ensures colleagues in all regions, regardless of the market minimum, are entitled to equal standards of support.
Amin is a firm believer in the business imperative of diversity and inclusion.
“I think a diverse and inclusive company will almost always deliver better business results,” he told the GG2 Power List previously. “You don't have to take my word for it. There have been a number of studies that have been done, which show how when boards and management teams and managers are made up of diverse individuals, in an inclusive company with diversity of ideas as well – as a way of thinking – those businesses always prosper economically.
“I think it’s the case for doing what's right, because I believe we are better when we resemble the populations that we serve. And we are better because we understand those populations better then, and deliver better results,” he added.
This commitment to diversity has earned Amin widespread recognition, including the CEO of the Year award at the 2022 GG2 Leadership Awards.
Amin’s tenure at pladis has not been without its challenges. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, just a year after he took the helm, Amin faced the unprecedented task of steering the company through a global crisis. His response was characterised by resilience and adaptability. “I remember saying that I thought it would all be over in three or four weeks,” he later recalled. “Well, we know how that prediction turned out.”
Despite the uncertainty, Amin and his team managed to not only survive but thrive. pladis has seen its brands strengthen during the 2020 emergency, underlining Amin’s reputation as one of the most talented and capable brand experts around.
This period of crisis brought the team closer together and reinforced Amin’s belief in the power of collaboration. “In many ways, I’m grateful for that experience,” he has said. “It brought us closer together, and we got through by making the big decisions together.”
Amin’s journey to the top has been anything but conventional, with several turns on the route to where he is today. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, he was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps as an engineer. After earning a degree in Civil Engineering from Syracuse University in the US, he found himself working deep beneath the streets of Chicago, inspecting concrete tunnels.
However, Amin soon realised that his true passion lay elsewhere. “I looked around and saw only incremental and anticipated steps forward,” he recalled. “I felt I wanted something more exciting than that.”
This epiphany led him to the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he earned an MBA. Amin assumed after business school he would go straight into a banking career, but fate had other ideas.
“It was, in some ways, quite accidental,” he has said of this second turn. “Because I thought that I was going into banking initially, and I ended up actually going in to see Procter and Gamble, who had invited me to interview with them. And I thought it would be a good initial interview to prepare me for others. But as I spoke to P&G, we just had a really, really interesting conversation. And they kept inviting me back for further and further interviews.”
He would stay at P&G for a decade, working in several countries – he has lived and worked in the US, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and the UK – managing brands. His positions,
including marketing director, covered multiple consumer categories including hair care, paper products and food.
The experience he gained at P&G primed him for later adventures, including 17 years at PepsiCo, where he rose to become global chief marketing officer, fine-tuning one of the widest and most recognisable brand stables in the world.
During his time at PepsiCo, which included five years as president of UK & Ireland business, followed by four years as global chief marketing officer, Amin developed and marketed its snacks portfolio across the world, while also driving forward its ‘front-of-pack’ labelling initiative – high-visibility panels which display information about a product’s nutrition and ingredients, to help consumers make healthier choices and avoid chronic diseases.
Prior to his current role, Amin worked for US chemicals giant SC Johnson for four years where he served as chief operating officer of the global commercial division with overall leadership responsibility for the commercial organisation, and before that as chief operating officer of North American markets.
Amin’s diverse experiences have shaped his leadership style, which is characterised by a deep appreciation for cultural nuances and a commitment to fostering inclusive environments. “I’ve felt truly at home in every country I’ve lived in,” he says. “I’ve been welcomed and included wherever I’ve been.”
He is a keen advocate of continuous learning. “One of my big messages to my team is: learn to learn. We must be curious about the world around us and how it affects our consumers, our people, and our business.”
Amin also serves on the board of directors at ITV PLC and is a Life Member of the Global Advisory Board for the Kellogg School of Management. In 2009, De Montfort University in the UK awarded him an honorary doctorate.
