When Mike Davies in May announced his departure from Thorntons, it was amid the clatter of profits warnings.
Davis was a food trade veteran, with stints at Nestlé and Mars on his CV. But he lasted just three years in the job – and didn’t even get the usual ‘Thanks, it’s been emotional’ comments from his former chairman in this morning’s press release announcing his successor.
(In fact, Mark Robson – who joined Thorntons as FD in 2009 from the post-merger Somerfield, has been acting CEO since Davies went at the end of September.)
Davies previously said his replacement would need retail expertise. And there’s no shortage of that on the CV of the man Thorntons today unveiled as his replacement.
(The Grocer likes to imagine he was literally unveiled from beneath a tablecloth to wowed investors, but that may not be what actually happened.)
Jonathan Hart spent five years selling coffee as emperor of Caffé Nero and a full decade plugged into Dixons Group.
Confusingly, he'll work alongside Kevin Hart, who joined Thorntons in July to, erm, improve its retail credentials.
The company Hart J takes over has a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde complex. The better its products do in supermarkets, the worse its stores on the high street perform.
Thorntons, squeezed by the supermarkets on one side and the likes of Hotel Chocolat on the other, is aware of this, of course. As this column noted in September, there's been an extensive (and expensive) programme to jazz up both the company's products and its stores, which have become rather stale.
So Hart may find he’s joining at the right time to start reaping the benefits. Hopefully he’s not issuing a statement in a year or two’s time saying his successor must have a solid track record in fmcg.
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