Arla Foods chief financial officer Frederik Lotz is leaving the dairy group to take up the role of CFO at Dutch-based retailer Action.

"Frederik has taken Arla and our finance community into a new era and he has particularly been our front-runner on going beyond budgeting and has established a more agile finance organisation and at the same time established strong finance programmes to manage our cash flow. Frederik has now decided to pursue a new career opportunity outside Arla, and I wish him all the best of luck in his new role," said Arla CEO Peder Tuborgh.

Lotz will leave Arla by 31 July. The process of finding his replacement has now been initiated.

Tuborgh added: "We are searching for an individual who can continue the development of our finance function and maintain a high performing finance community for one of the world’s largest dairy companies with a revenue of EUR11bn."