Board of Directors

Hannes Floto, Managing Director

Hannes Floto joined Metro cash and carry in 2002 as Food Buying Director in Makro Greece, where amongst other responsibilities he led the Greek Division of company to grow its business with caterers to double digits every year.

Hannes has brought his experience to the UK Team, joining Makro UK in Jan 2007 appointed as UK Managing Director. Hannes is responsible for making further improvements to the Makro range and developing an offering that satisfies Makro customer’s business needs allowing them to compete successfully in today’s tough environment. 

Hannes is placing high emphasis on ensuring Makro’s availability, quality, service and competitiveness meet world class standards in order to be a business partner every day for all our customers!

Prior to joining Metro, Hannes started his professional career as a steel trader in Hamburg. He joined Lidl in 1990 and as a Trainee began by learning the trade from the bottom up; cleaning and filling shelves, working as a cashier, before being appointed Store Manager. One year later he joined the central buying department in Neckarsulm, Germany and in 1993 was promoted to Purchasing Director for the start up of Lidl UK. Here he opened the first 10 stores in October of the same year.

Mark Copeland, Customer Management Director

Mark Copeland joined Metro in June 2009 after 17 years with SC Johnson and positions at two consultancies. Most recently held the position of Regional Marketing Director for Europe, Mexico, Australasia and Japan at SC Johnson.

Prior to that, held positions in Brand Management in Europe and the USA, on big brands like Glade, Oust, Windex and Mr. Muscle.

Mark is responsible for the company’s Customer Management and Marketing strategy, as well as Target Group Management, the Marketing team and Customer Services. As a Board member, influence both the commercial and the strategic direction, provide vision, develop short & long term strategies, set objectives and achieve turnover, margin and throughput for all Customer related activities.

Mark's focus for the business is to continue Makro UK’s transition to a business centred on the core customer. To develop profitable sales through TGM initiatives and successful marketing campaigns.

Allard Sjollema, Offer Management Director

Allard Sjollema has an international track record that is unrivalled in the wholesale sector; being successfully active in the trade while working and living in Holland, Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, France and UK.

His career breakthrough came in 1997 when he joined Metro Group, of which Makro UK is a daughter company, as store manager of the first store in the Czech Republic. For the next 9 years, Allard was considered a key member of the team that made Makro Czech Republic market leader, leaving behind rivals such as Tesco, Carrefour, Ahold and Lidl.  After managing the start up of Metro Slovakia, he became Food Buying Director and board member for the Business Unit Makro Czech Republic/Metro Slovakia.

In 2006, Allard was asked to help lead Makro UK into a new strategic direction, joining the board of Makro UK as Food Buying Director. In April 2009 he was promoted to Offer Management Director, a role that adds Non Food to his responsibilities.

Patrick Legro, Operations Director

Patrick Legro joined Metro Cash & Carry in 1999 as a Management trainee in Makro Poland where he learned the basics of Cash & Carry business from the bottom-up having worked as a butcher, fresh fish sales man, customer consultant and cashier among other positions. This is where his passion for Food and especially Ultra Fresh truly started.

In 2000 he was appointed Store Manager in the Head office store in Metro Cash & Carry Romania followed by Regional Manager for Romania. After the experience in Eastern Europe he was fortunate to have the opportunity to be part of the opening team for Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam as Sales and Operations Manager and a year later as Operations Director. He opened 8 stores throughout Vietnam and set-up the CRM organization.

After this experience Patrick moved on the Makro Cash & Carry Greece as Operations Director in 2006 covering Operations and Marketing. He supported the expansion of Makro Greece as well as develop a strong CRM structure and customer first approach.

Patrick is a Swedish Citizen coming from a ‘expat’ family having lived in many countries of which Tanzania and Nigeria were the most interesting.

He has a passion for cooking and loves working with Fresh products. He is strong believer in the importance of the customer first mindset!

Stefan Hesse, Finance and Administration Director

In his position as Finance and Administration Director, Stefan Hesse brings with him over 10 years experience within the Metro Group, in areas of Finance and Controlling.

Stefan joined Metro’s Controlling Department in 1996 whereby after 2 years he became Head of Controlling at Metro Bulgaria. In this role Stefan played key role in a pioneering team to set up a completely new organisation in a green field investment.  Moving to Metro Romania in 2000 as a Finance and Administration Director, Stefan joined the Board of Directors and played a pivotal role in phased turn around and high speed expansion of Metro Stores in the Romanian market.

In 2005 Stefan was responsible for financial control of the whole Metro group, as Head of Corporate Controlling in Metro’s corporate Head Office in Düsseldorf.

He joined the UK Team at Makro in 2005 as the Finance and Administration Director, going “back to the roots” of the cash and carry division and taking on a more operational role, specifically  through his responsibilities for overall supply chain and logistics management. In this role Stefan is also responsible for finance and accounting, Information Management and Controlling at Makro UK.

 Caroline Hutchins, Human Resources Director

Caroline Hutchins joined the Metro Cash and Carry Group in June 2007 and was appointed to the Board of Directors at Makro UK as Human Resources Director in November 2007. Caroline has a wealth of International HR experience, having previously worked for big brands such as Tesco and C&J Clark International.