Zeelandia UK celebrates the
tenure and bakery
industry influence of retiring colleague Lewis Davage

Following a long-standing career of over 46 years in the food and bakery industry and a whopping 23 years at Zeelandia UK, we are sad to announce the retirement of our trusted colleague, Head of Innovation, and friend, Lewis Davage. 

It is hard to find a corner of the baking industry that hasn’t been influenced by Lewis’s fruitful career. 

Starting in 1977 as an Apprentice Baker at the Carrefour Group in one of the UK’s early demonstrations of an ‘in-store bakery,’ Lewis described his first role as a baptism of fire. In a week, he went from placing dough pieces into tins, to weighing, measuring, and mixing ingredients.

With a passion for baking, there was no stopping his development. He joined Manor Bakeries Ltd., as a Bakery Technologist and helped develop products for the Mr Kipling brand, growing in the role and experiencing his first taste of management.

It is from here, that Lewis found a new direction for his career, realising his extensive food, bakery and ingredient knowledge was essential to supporting sales growth when joining Pronova Biopolymer Ltd as a Technical Sales Manager, helping drive communications and sales across the UK market. 

Following a short stint at Food Ingredient Technology, Lewis found his home at Zeelandia UK, and has inspired multiple departments as Technical & Development Manager, Development & Business Manager, Head of R&D and Quality and finally, Head of Innovation. 

During his time with us, Lewis has played a key role in ensuring the high quality of our products, driving the growth of long-standing client relationships, and supporting the integration of our bake stable fillings line into our Wigan site. 

Talking about his industry career and tenure at Zeelandia UK, Lewis said; 

“I have been truly humbled by the words of kindness, from colleagues old and new, as I have reached my final days at Zeelandia. 

“Over my long career, the one thing that has stayed the same in this industry is the passion of bakers; the desire to innovate, to overcome challenges and adapt to the changing and more complex landscape of the industry. Both at Zeelandia UK and in past roles, it has been an honour to work with, support and inspire my colleagues. 

It has also been incredible to witness the bakery sector landscape transform over the years. It is no secret that regulation and procedure have created a perhaps more mindful baker. Ever changing generational demand for bakery products, technical advances in production processes and the need to become more sustainable requires faster, bolder innovation across the sector and I have been delighted to be at the forefront of ensuring a solutions mindset at Zeelandia UK.

I leave this role with a heavy heart but a sense of pride that the colleagues I leave behind and incredible young talent joining the trade will future-proof the bakery market for years to come.” 

David Amos, Managing Director at Zeelandia UK, said; "During his time at Zeelandia UK, Lewis’s knowledge and experience have proven to be a significant asset to our business and played a key role in developing the trusted supplier relationship we have with our customer base. We thank him for his many years of service with us and wish him a long and happy retirement"

Andrew Taylor, NPD Mangager also added;  "It has been an epic adventure working with Lewis Davage over the last 16 years. Lewis was very much a detail mister and was very knowledgeable within hydrocolloids, pectin’s & starches and his door was always open if you needed help and advice. Lewis always enjoyed working with Students and the highlight of this was conducting around 15 presentations in 4 hours at the yearly ABST conference then in the evening dressing up as the incredible hulk for the fancy dress evening. We have had good times  and lots of laughter over the years and he will be greatly missed within the NPD team, Zeelandia UK & global and the wider baking industry, we wish him a long and happy retirement.”

As Lewis hangs up his apron for a final time, the Zeelandia UK Product team will continue to support craft and industrial bakery customers to find the right ingredients and solutions to bake their next best products.