Patrick Coveney, the chief executive of Greencore, will take a direct role in the strategic, organisational and commercial leadership of Greencore US, spending approximately half his time in the US, according to a recent statement.
Coveney is to take a ‘direct role in the strategic, organisational and commercial leadership of Greencore US’ as part of his new role, with Chuck Metzger, COO of Greencore US assuming day-to-day responsibility for the US business.
Elsewhere, Chris Kirke, outgoing CEO of Greencore US is leading the Group to return to the UK.
The company, 'has restructured its US leadership team to drive near term performance and to exploit its growth agenda,' the group said in a statement.
New Senior Personnel
Since January, the Group has made 'important additions to the US senior team, with four senior hires in the areas of Commercial, Finance, Strategy and HR'.
The convenience foods group said that these planned additions, combined with the existing Peacock Foods operational skills, and further investments in growth capability, significantly strengthens Greencore in the US.
Acquisition Of Peacock Foods
The shakeup comes just over a year on from the acquisition of Peacock Foods in December 2016, which ‘greatly enhanced the scale, operational capabilities and financial performance of Greencore US’, the company said in a statement.
In January, Greencore revealed that pro forma growth at its US Convenience Foods operation in Q1 was 5.1%, with the business posting sales of £255.1 million.
Its Q1 group sales were 7.2% up on last year, at £640.5 million.
Low Capacity Utilisation
In addition, the group recently reported low capacity utilisation at some of its US sites, and is ‘restructuring its US network to reflect the commercial pipeline and to address these utilisation challenges’.
With this in mind, fresh production at the group’s Rhode Island facility is to cease from 25 March, while it announced plans to repurpose its Jacksonville facility following the loss of a supply contract - believed to be that of Starbucks - last August.
2018 Outlook
Looking ahead to the coming financial year, the group said that it ‘continues to anticipate good organic revenue growth and a modest improvement in operating leverage’, despite softer volume growth in the second quarter, due to poor weather.
It it anticipating an impairment charge of around £3 million to its full year income statement, as a result of the planned network restructuring.
It also anticipates adjusted EPS for the year in the range of 14.7p-15.7p, with approximately two thirds of that contribution delivered in the second half.
© 2018 - Checkout Magazine by Donna Ahern
