Swiss-Irish bakery group Aryzta has announced the appointment of David Wilkinson, a senior partner at KPMG in Dublin, as an interim chief financial officer, to support the group during a management transition process.
Wilkinson joins the group ahead of the forthcoming departure of chief executive Own Killian, CFO Patrick McEniff and John Yamin, CEO Americas, who will depart the group on 31 March.
'David will report directly to the Chairman of the Board until a new CEO is appointed', Aryzta said in a statement.
The appointment comes as Aryzta announced a revenue decrease of 2.8% to €1.91 billon for the first half of the year, or a 1.6% underlying decline.
Aryzta Europe revenues decreased 2.3% to €861.8 million, posting 1.0% underlying growth. In North America, the group's revenues were down 5.8%, while in Rest of World, revenues were up 20.3%.
EBIT declined by 31.3% to €158.5 million.
Commenting on its performance, Jason Molins of Goodbody Stockbrokers said that "this morning’s H1 results statement from ARYZTA provided no surprises."
Molins noted that the group's European division "saw LFL sales growth of 1% (vs. 1.9% forecast) as strong growth in Central & Eastern Europe was partially offset by declines in Germany, driven by the transfer of capacity to a new plant. Margins declined 300bps due to the inefficiencies associated with the transfer and also the transactional impact of weaker sterling.
"Pricing increases have since been achieved and are expected to offset the currency impact for the remainder of the year."
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones.
