Australia-based fruit and vegetable supplier Costa Group has announced experienced finance executive Wayne Johnston is its new chief financial officer.

He replaces Linda Kow who will step down from the role on 1 May. Her departure from the company was announced in December.

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Johnston will take up his new role on 29 June. Costa’s deputy CFO Amin Ikram will be acting CFO until then.

In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), on which it is listed, Harry Debney, Costa Group CEO, said Johnston “will bring to the role a breadth of experience gained from a career spent leading finance functions for a number of Australian ASX-listed companies, including Symbion/Mayne, as CFO of Spicers Paper and his most recent role as interim CFO of Sigma Healthcare.” 

Johnston is said to be a proven CFO with “extensive experience in complex operating environments across multiple geographies, including managing transformational and organisational change in both corporate and operational environments”.

Debney added: “We believe his impressive reputation for execution and achieving results makes him the right choice to lead our finance functions.”

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Costa grows, packs and markets produce including berries, mushrooms, glasshouse tomatoes, citrus and avocados. Its operations include approximately 4,500 planted hectares of farmland, 30 hectares of glasshouse facilities and three mushroom growing facilities across Australia. 

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