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Learn more about our services, approach and the sectors we operate in.
For more information on our Ingredients services, get in touch with
Josh Leaper
Principal Consultant
Hundreds of 'Excellent' reviews
Helping Ingredients companies unlock their next stage of growth
Specialisms We Cover
The global specialty food ingredients market is valued at close to $200 billion and continues to grow steadily, driven by innovation in functionality, nutrition, and sustainable formulation.
The ingredients sector is fundamental to innovation across food, beverage, nutrition, and industrial applications. As brands respond to changing consumer expectations around taste, health, functionality, and transparency, ingredient manufacturers are under increasing pressure to deliver high-performing, scalable, and compliant solutions. Innovation across formulation, processing, and sourcing continues to drive growth and differentiation across the market.We work with ingredient manufacturers and suppliers across a wide range of product categories, including acids, alcohols, antioxidants and preservatives, carbohydrates, texturants and emulsifiers, cocoa, nuts and coffee, flours and enzymes, glazing and coating agents, glycols, milk powders, cultures and concentrates, oils and fats, prebiotics, probiotics, proteins (meat, dairy and plant-based), salts, starches and sweeteners, sulphates and phosphates, and vitamins and minerals. Our reputation is built on supporting both global multinationals and high-growth start-ups as they scale and innovate.
Ingredients sit behind countless finished products.
Businesses operating across ingredients supply multiple end markets, each with different technical, regulatory, and commercial expectations. Success depends on managing complexity across sourcing, processing, formulation support, and customer requirements.Building strong teams in this space relies on understanding how ingredients are specified, supplied, and applied across industries. Access to people with broad market exposure helps organisations remain adaptable, reliable, and competitive as demand and applications evolve.
Team
Josh Leaper
Principal Consultant
Oliver Kiddy
Managing Director
Ewan Ball
Business Manager
If the job is right, job locations don’t exist.
Our client is a small to medium-sized ingredients manufacturer, who have strong ambitious growth plans over the coming years. Their smaller scale has always allowed for a certain degree of flexibility, but their HQ location has provided a slight barrier to on-site talent attraction. The company achieved their recent growth targets, and we were able to successfully support them through further hiring. Some of the new employees are the first remote working team-members, something completely new for the company. Since then, we have continued to support them and their novel ideas for their company and learned of the excellent success of the remote working employees.
Case Study
If the job is right, job locations don’t exist.
Did you know?
Hiring the wrong candidate costs more than just time—it can waste salary, training resources, and opportunities. The Department of Labour estimates a bad hire can cost up to 30% of the role’s first-year earnings.
We hire right
Organisations are
97% Placement Rate 11.78:1 CVs Sent to Interviews 2Avg. 32 Day Engagement to Placement 3
1. Based on all roles engaged on by a client on an exclusive basis from Jan 4 2025 - Dec 31 2025.
2. All CVs Sent from Jan 4 2025 - Dec 31 2025.
3. From Jan 4 2025 - Dec 31 2025.
Stats
1,908 placements made across 25 sectors
262,736 companies in our CRM
"At Irving Knight, we don't just fill positions; we build lasting partnerships. Our commitment to understanding your unique needs ensures that we deliver leaders who drive success and embody your company's values. When it comes to identifying the high-performers of tomorrow, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Our bespoke approach ensures every search is personal, diverse, and tailored from the ground up — delivering an individual, unrivalled experience for both clients and candidates. "
- Joe Davey, Group CEO of Irving Knight Group
Ashley Maclean
Systems Sales Engineer, South Carolina
Jack Purnell with Irving Knight was the best recruiter I’ve worked with - by far. He communicated clearly, was respec...
Jack Purnell
Heavy Equipment & Automation
Veronica Hagborg
Senior Director Global HR, Sweden
I have had the opportunity to co-operate with Joseph in a process and I found him very proactive in keeping me inform...
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Matt Engelbrecht
VP Industrial Ops, US
Working with Lily was a phenomenal experience. She was fully transparent, professional, and provided timely communica...
Lily Newton
Animal Health
Nika Kuchaidze
Senior Continuous Improvement Chemist, US
It was a pleasure working with Joseph on transitioning to a position with a new company. Communication was prompt,...
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Michel Cas
Sales Manager, France
Incredibly human oriented executive search, candidates handled with great care and respect, precise and concise infor...
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Tim Staniels
Territory Sales Manager, US
Joseph was very easy to work with. He was motivated and attentive during his recruitment process, very responsive to ...
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Andrew Coutts
Director Global Strategy, US
First Class Service Emma shared details of a relevant opportunity and did a great job helping to manage lengthy nego...
Emma Conlin
Animal Health
Tim Mitchell
Plant Manager, US
Stewart did an amazing job representing me for a new opportunity.
Stewart Boyd
Construction Materials
Vincent Dehousse
Head of Sales & Marketing, Netherlands
Great experience working with Cian from Irving Knight—professional, responsive, and genuinely supportive. Highly reco...
Cian ODonnell
CDMO & CRO
Sandeep Kulshrestha
Formulation Director, US
Oliver is very good in matching skills of the candidates with the company’s requirements. I personally got benefits o...
Oliver Kiddy
Flavors & Fragrances
Keith Parvin
Automation Division Director
I found Joseph to be extremely professional in every way when going through a recent recruitment process, always doin...
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Nathan Radue
Channel Marketing Manager, US
Oliver is a thorough and effective recruiter, representing both sides with character and solid communication. He appr...
Oliver Kiddy
Flavors & Fragrances
Kaitlin Lammers
Account Manager
Oliver made the hiring process smooth from start to finish. He was consistently responsive, understanding, and suppor...
Oliver Kiddy
Flavors & Fragrances
Franz-Leo Nedo
Territory Sales Manager
Joseph is an expert in recruting people. He has in-depth practical knowledge and helpful by solving potential issues....
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Christoph Snaga
Investment Manager, Germany
Christopher from Irving Knight handled the overall process well and we managed to get to a successful completion smoo...
Christopher Clay
Real Estate & Homebuilding
Kay Witte
Global Director Performance Excellence
Joseph was instrumental in making my last professional opportunity happen. He was easy to work with, responsive, and ...
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Brian Carpenter
VP Continous Improvement, US
Stewart was instrumental in helping me through this process and alleviating my concerns as I’ve been out of the workf...
Stewart Boyd
Construction Materials
Eduardo Valle
Development Mgr, US
This opportunity fell on my lap at the perfect time and the overall process with Christopher was great. It was a very...
Christopher Clay
Real Estate & Homebuilding
Corinne Grice
Strategic Account Manager, US
Luca was an absolute gem to work with ! He reached out to me on linkedin with several different opportunities & was a...
Luca Dowdell
Lubricants and Oil & Gas
Rania Metwall
Head of Sales, France
Would highly recommend working with Luca Dowdell. He helped me find the perfect job. Very professional, friendly and ...
Luca Dowdell
Lubricants and Oil & Gas
Ashley Maclean
Systems Sales Engineer, South Carolina
Jack Purnell with Irving Knight was the best recruiter I’ve worked with - by far. He communicated clearly, was respec...
Jack Purnell
Heavy Equipment & Automation
Veronica Hagborg
Senior Director Global HR, Sweden
I have had the opportunity to co-operate with Joseph in a process and I found him very proactive in keeping me inform...
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Matt Engelbrecht
VP Industrial Ops, US
Working with Lily was a phenomenal experience. She was fully transparent, professional, and provided timely communica...
Lily Newton
Animal Health
Nika Kuchaidze
Senior Continuous Improvement Chemist, US
It was a pleasure working with Joseph on transitioning to a position with a new company. Communication was prompt,...
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Michel Cas
Sales Manager, France
Incredibly human oriented executive search, candidates handled with great care and respect, precise and concise infor...
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Tim Staniels
Territory Sales Manager, US
Joseph was very easy to work with. He was motivated and attentive during his recruitment process, very responsive to ...
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Andrew Coutts
Director Global Strategy, US
First Class Service Emma shared details of a relevant opportunity and did a great job helping to manage lengthy nego...
Emma Conlin
Animal Health
Tim Mitchell
Plant Manager, US
Stewart did an amazing job representing me for a new opportunity.
Stewart Boyd
Construction Materials
Vincent Dehousse
Head of Sales & Marketing, Netherlands
Great experience working with Cian from Irving Knight—professional, responsive, and genuinely supportive. Highly reco...
Cian ODonnell
CDMO & CRO
Sandeep Kulshrestha
Formulation Director, US
Oliver is very good in matching skills of the candidates with the company’s requirements. I personally got benefits o...
Oliver Kiddy
Flavors & Fragrances
Keith Parvin
Automation Division Director
I found Joseph to be extremely professional in every way when going through a recent recruitment process, always doin...
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Nathan Radue
Channel Marketing Manager, US
Oliver is a thorough and effective recruiter, representing both sides with character and solid communication. He appr...
Oliver Kiddy
Flavors & Fragrances
Kaitlin Lammers
Account Manager
Oliver made the hiring process smooth from start to finish. He was consistently responsive, understanding, and suppor...
Oliver Kiddy
Flavors & Fragrances
Franz-Leo Nedo
Territory Sales Manager
Joseph is an expert in recruting people. He has in-depth practical knowledge and helpful by solving potential issues....
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Christoph Snaga
Investment Manager, Germany
Christopher from Irving Knight handled the overall process well and we managed to get to a successful completion smoo...
Christopher Clay
Real Estate & Homebuilding
Kay Witte
Global Director Performance Excellence
Joseph was instrumental in making my last professional opportunity happen. He was easy to work with, responsive, and ...
Joseph Davey
Group CEO
Brian Carpenter
VP Continous Improvement, US
Stewart was instrumental in helping me through this process and alleviating my concerns as I’ve been out of the workf...
Stewart Boyd
Construction Materials
Eduardo Valle
Development Mgr, US
This opportunity fell on my lap at the perfect time and the overall process with Christopher was great. It was a very...
Christopher Clay
Real Estate & Homebuilding
Corinne Grice
Strategic Account Manager, US
Luca was an absolute gem to work with ! He reached out to me on linkedin with several different opportunities & was a...
Luca Dowdell
Lubricants and Oil & Gas
Rania Metwall
Head of Sales, France
Would highly recommend working with Luca Dowdell. He helped me find the perfect job. Very professional, friendly and ...
