Country Range promotes Dean Pendlebury to buying director

Country Range Group (CRG) has promoted head of trading Dean Pendlebury to buying director.

Pendlebury (pictured), who starts his new role on 1 January, has had a career in buying that spans over 17 years, starting out at food producer Cranswick where he worked in junior buyer and buyer roles.

He joined CRG in 2013 and has been instrumental in building the group’s buying power up to £360 million, as well as its purchasing strategy, tenders, trading compliance and the development of the three-tiered own-brand portfolio.

In his 12 years at the Country Range Group, he has carried out various buying roles, giving him a deep understanding of products and solutions, commodities, suppliers, market trends and most importantly the CRG membership.

With the group recently hitting its £1 billion turnover target with two years to spare, Pendlebury’s wealth of experience, contacts and ability to engage with suppliers, members and stakeholders is seen as key as CRG continues to shape its next five-year strategic roadmap.

Heading up a team of five, his responsibilities in the newly-created role will include executing and implementing CRG’s buying plan in line with the updated five-year strategy and increasing the sales value of the own-brand portfolio to £250 million by 2030.

Commenting on his appointment, CRG chief executive Martin Ward said: “Dean has been pivotal in our recent success and in helping us take our collective purchasing power past the £360 million mark so we’re delighted to announce him as our new buying director. He’s innovative, hardworking, diligent and thoroughly deserves this opportunity as we look to retain talent and further strengthen our head office team.”

Pendlebury said: “It’s a great honour to be made the Country Range Group’s new buying director and I truly believe it couldn’t be at a more exciting time for the group. We’ve really starting to see the benefits and value of our collective power and it’s a real pleasure to work with such a great set of people, not just in our central office but across our membership.”

CRG intends to further strengthen its central office buying and wider team in 2026.