Iwan Williams, MD of Premier Foods plc’s bakery operations, is to also lead the UK manufacturer’s grocery business – at least on an interim basis – after Graham Hunter, the executive lined up for the role, decided to join Tangerine Confectionery.
Premier said today (17 January) it had no current plans to fill the grocery MD role, which 2 Sisters Food Group director and former Northern Foods executive Hunter was due to take up this month.
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In October, Premier announced Hunter would join the company in early 2012 in the new role of MD of its grocery operations.
Chief executive Michael Clarke had revamped the UK manufacturer’s management structure, which saw the role of COO disappear and the creation of two MDs – one for the company’s grocery business and one for its bakery operations.
However, in a surprise announcement yesterday (16 January), Tangerine, the UK confectioner behind Wham bars and Butterkist popcorn, said Hunter would instead join its business as CEO later this month.
Iwan Williams, a partner at financial consultants Ambre Partners, took up the role of MD of Premier’s bakery operations in November and had since been covering both his own role and that of interim MD of grocery.
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By GlobalDataA spokesperson for Premier told just-food today that Williams will now continue in both roles until a decision is made on whether to recruit for the position of MD of the company’s grocery unit.
“Iwan joined in November and Graham was due to join at the start of 2012. So, in the interim, Iwan was taking on the whole group. As such, with Graham deciding to go to Tangerine, Iwan is going to continue doing what he has been doing since November,” the spokesperson said.
He added: “[Premier] are probably going to review this, but for the meantime Iwan will cover. If they do [appoint] they will make an announcement on that, but as far as we are concerned at the moment, Iwan will do the role.”
