High street clothing chain Next Plc (LON:NXT) has named Michael Roney, former boss of packaging firm Bunzl PLC (LON:BNZL) as its new chairman.
Roney will take over from current incumbent John Barton, who will retire on August 1 having been the retailer’s non-executive chairman since 2006.
The former chief executive of Bunzl, and current chairman of Grafton Group PLC (LON:GFTU) will join Next’s board as an independent non-executive director, deputy chairman and chairman designate from today.
Roney is joining a firm which kicked off the retail sector’s Christmas trading updates at the start of January by cutting its profit guidance for the current financial year, and also warning on the outlook for the next, as it reported a drop in festive sales.
Next said its central guidance for pre-tax profit for the full-year to end-January 2017 is now £792mln, down from the £805mln indicated previously
The firm also forecast pre-tax profit in the range of £680mln-£780mln for full-year 2017-18, below analysts' current average forecast of £784mln.
Shore Capital analyst George Mensah, said: “We believe Next is in a period of transition and welcome the appointment of Michael Roney, who given his experience, could provide useful counsel in an independent, non-executive capacity.”
In early trading, Next shares on the FTSE 100 index were up 29p to 3,960p.
Independent retail analyst Nick Bubb commented: “When we saw the title 'Directorate Change' in the announcement by Next our heart skipped a little beat: was this Simon Wolfson bowing out as CEO at last, on Valentine’s Day? Or was ex-Product Director Christos Angelides returning to the fold?
“ Well, no, it was just the veteran non-exec Chairman John Barton deciding to retire. He will be replaced by a heavyweight business leader, albeit one with no Retail experience, in the form of Michael Roney, who was CEO of Bunzl until his retirement in April 2016.”
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