Missguided’s former online boss Gareth Jones has taken the reins at healthy food etailer MuscleFood as the business accelerates its focus on technology.

Gareth Jones

Gareth Jones has taken over as chief executive of MuscleFood

Jones took up his new role early last week, replacing founder Darren Beale, who has moved into a part-time, non-executive advisory role.

Jones joined Missguided in September 2017 having been appointed by founder and group chief executive Nitin Passi but left the business after less than a year in the role.

Prior to that, Jones held a number of senior roles at Shop Direct as group retail director and then deputy chief executive.

Beale said MuscleFood was “very fortunate to have found someone of Gareth Jones’ calibre” and praised his track record of developing “scalable technology platforms”.

Beale added: “As we start to scale our team, infrastructure, production and technology, Gareth’s experience and expertise in this area will be invaluable.” 

Jones said MuscleFood is “already an undoubted success delivering a convenient online solution to anyone with a desire to train and eat healthily”.

The healthy food etailer was founded in 2013 to cater for bodybuilders but has since gone on to expand its customer base. It sells food supplements as well as lean meats and vegetables.

It received £10m worth of investment from BGF in early January 2018. It currently has over one million active customers on its database.