Richards has been with Carpigiani since 2018 as senior business development manager so taking on this new role is a ‘well-deserved promotion’.

Paul Ingram, managing director of Carpigiani UK, said: “The past year has been incredibly busy for us, continuing the trend of tremendous growth in demand for Carpigiani products.

“We wanted to strengthen the sales function further with the introduction of a UK sales manager to lead our team of business development managers; Paul was the obvious choice for the role as he’s got great knowledge and experience of both our business and the UK market.

“Over the last few years Paul has really gone above and beyond in his dedication to customers and in growing our business, he is a real asset to Carpigiani UK.”

The Carpigiani sales team expanded after Simon Holdsworth was appointed business development manager for Scotland and the North East of England.