Interview: InSinkErator MD Ashley Munden – Why food waste disposers are now a necessity

As Ashley Munden looks back on his 40-year career with InSinkErator, he talks to Nicola Hanley about how he’s working with retailers to capitalise on the growing popularity of food waste disposers

There aren’t many people that can say they’ve worked for the same company for four decades and counting. But that’s exactly what Ashley Munden, who joined Emerson (InSinkErator’s former owner) in 1986, has done.

Over the last 40 years, Munden has risen through the ranks and was appointed managing director EMEA at InSinkErator in 2012. It’s a position he retains today.

So how does he feel about the milestone? “I find it hard to believe it’s been 40 years,” he says. “When you’ve been associated with a business for so many years you have the pleasure of that growth and watching that little acorn grow into a big oak tree.”

One of the things Munden says he has found most rewarding, particularly in the later years, is mentoring colleagues and helping them grow with the business. “We all love to have commercial success, it’s what gets us up in the morning and motivates us, but it’s also very rewarding to see how I can impact other people.”

During his tenure, Munden is credited with overseeing the sale of over 1 million food waste disposers which has equated to hundreds of millions of pounds in revenue for InSinkErator. It’s a category, he says, that is really gaining momentum now. “When I first began calling into kitchen showrooms and talking to designers, the issue of food waste wasn’t high on the agenda. So in my early days, I was promoting a product that people showed much less interest in. But today we’re in the fortunate position that our behaviour in the kitchen has changed. We’re part of a topical conversation now and it’s a product that has become not just a good to have but almost a necessity.”

Munden estimates that only about 5% of UK homes currently have a food waste disposer. “So the opportunity is huge,” he says. Retailers, he believes, are very positive about the category but he feels sales of food waste disposers are currently very much driven by customer demand. “One thing we know is that once you’ve had a food waste disposer, you’ll never not have one. Consumers love the convenience, hygiene and safety.”

While building consumer awareness of food waste disposers remains a key priority for InSinkErator, Munden is also actively looking for new ways to engage with retailers to help grow sales. In 2024, the company launched its Next Generation range of food waste disposers. “We placed about 1,000 displays into UK showrooms, which is a huge amount, and it meant we could highlight the category, create more noise and excitement around it and speak to more people. For us it came at a perfect time and it resonated with more retailers. The new artwork that we have is high for this category and it’s helped us win in the marketplace and enjoy some success over the last couple of years in a market that has certainly been fairly challenging.”

Keen to maintain the momentum, over the summer the company ran an informal drop-in programme, which invited retailers to make a 30-minute appointment for InSinkErator’s sales team to visit and provide product advice and demos. “It’s been a great initiative for us,” Munden says. “It’s a really great story but it is one that’s better communicated face-to-face. We know there are knowledge gaps among our kitchen designers and we wanted to create an opportunity to answer questions that customers might be asking them.”

More new food waste disposers are set to launch in 2027 and InSinkErator also has plans to expand its portfolio of steaming hot water taps, too. “We’re very excited. 2027 is going to be a good year for us as a business. We’re working in a category where the appeal is growing and I think now more than ever there is a real need for food waste disposers,” Munden says. “Sometimes you think to yourself, ‘this is the right time,’ and I think today is the right time even more so than it was earlier in my career.”