Cindy Hess, the CFO of South Africa’s Pioneer Food Group, has resigned and will leave the business at the end of October.

In a statement to the Johannesburg stock exchange yesterday (3 October), Pioneer provided no reason for Hess’ move. The statement read: “The board of Pioneer Foods would like to thank her for the positive contribution during her tenure and wish her success with her future endeavours.”

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Cas Lamprecht, described in the statement as “a senior financial executive in the group” will take the role of acting CFO “until a suitable replacement has been appointed”.

Hess joined Pioneer in 2014 after seven years at South African seafood group Sea Harvest. Her career includes two years as a finance executive at retail group Woolworths.

Last month, Pioneer announced it had struck a deal to buy Stream Foods, the UK producer of the children’s snacking brand Fruit Bowl, from local business Wellness Foods.

In May, Pioneer booked “positive results” for the first six months of its financial year, with sales and earnings rising.

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Pioneer is set to report its annual figures next months. In the last full year on which it has reported, the 12 months to the end of September 2015, Pioneer booked a 30% increase in adjusted headline earnings per share to 832 cents for the period ended 30 September. 

Earnings rose 17% to ZAR1.13bn (US$82.5m), adjusted for the impact of an impairment charge associated with the October 2014 unbundling of the Quantum Foods business. Adjusted operating income was up 28% to ZAR2.15bn.

Revenues in the company rose 6% to ZAR18.7bn.

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