Crawshaw Group PLC (LON:CRAW) shares rose on Friday morning as the UK’s value butcher announced the appointment of Jim Viggars as chief executive officer and Nick Taylor as chief financial officer with effect from 21 May 2018.
The AIM-listed firm said Jim Viggars has over 30 years’ experience within the meat industry and was the head of the Fresh Meat Department at UK supermarket ASDA. He will replace Noel Collet, who will step down to pursue other opportunities.
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The company said Nick Taylor served as CFO of Janan Meat, the UK’s premier dedicated Halal Lamb and Mutton meat processor and was finance director of the Egg products division at Noble Food Group and held a variety of roles at ABP Food Group. He will replace Alan Richardson and will also assume the role of company secretary.
Jim McCarthy, chairman of Crawshaw, said: “They both have clear commercial acumen and careers which are steeped in the industry. I am confident that their combined expertise, experience and outlook will help drive the group forward.”
Shock revelation with new Crawshaw boss
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell said: “Investors may raise a few eyebrows today when they read the announcement from meat seller Crawshaw revealing its new chief executive, Jim Viggars.”
“After the pleasantries welcoming the new boss, there is a line referencing a media article in 2015 which claims Viggars was dismissed from Asda for gross misconduct in connection with breaches of Walmart’s (Asda’s parent) expenses policies,” Mould said.
He added: “Companies are increasingly encouraged to be transparent and open about directors’ past and present activities as it is good corporate governance practice.
“Clearly Crawshaw’s board feel Viggars’ previous actions weren’t serious enough to question his ability to run a plc company, otherwise they wouldn’t have appointed him. However, the revelation may come as a slight shock to Crawshaw’s shareholders”.
“It places instant pressure on Viggars to prove that he can successfully grow the business and behave in the manner appropriate to being a chief executive,” Mould concluded.
In March Crawshaw shares fell by 31% after it announced two key management resignations and warned on challenging trading conditions.
In early morning trading, Crawshaw’s shares jumped 6.5% to 4.90p.