Dairy Crest today (11 December) insisted the resignation of the executive managing director of its dairies division was a personal decision and not linked to the UK firm’s restructuring.
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The company announced this morning that Oakes had decided to resign from his role and would leave the firm at the end of January.
Dairy Crest said last month that it would cut up to 80 jobs from its head office in a bid to keep a lid of rising costs.
However, a spokesman for the company insisted Oakes’s departure was not linked to the wider restructuring at the group.
Dairy Crest chief executive Mark Allen will take direct control of the company’s dairies division, which, the spokesman said, had had “problems” in recent months.
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By GlobalData“In our interim trading update, it did suggest that the dairies division had had some problems. The ingredient business has been under pressure due to lower ingredient realisations, while the doorstep business has been under pressure to higher input costs,” the spokesman said,
When asked why Dairy Crest was not replacing Oakes’s position, the spokesman insisted Allen “knew the dairies division well” after a spell running the unit before he was appointed chief executive in January 2007.
He added that “now is not a time to be spending more money” to replace Oakes, given the economic climate.
Last month, Dairy Crest reported a 6% rise in half-year revenue for the six months to 30 September, while underlying pre-tax profits were up 4%.
