2 Sisters Nigel Williams 1

Source: 2 Sisters Food Group

Williams (pictured) will replace the outgoing Craig Tomkinson, who was credited with making a ’significant contribution, helping transform 2 Sisters for the better’

2 Sisters Food Group has appointed Nigel Williams as its new group chief financial officer, replacing Craig Tomkinson, who has decided to step down and will leave the poultry giant in July.

Williams joins the business this month and will officially take over the role’s responsibilities at the start of April.

2 Sisters described him as a “highly experienced CFO” with a “first-class track record in financial leadership roles”. He boasts a 20 year-plus background leading multi-site food and beverage retailers and most recently spent eight years in Australia as CFO at global business Collins Foods.

Prior to his role at Collins, he worked as finance director for Starbucks UK. He relocated back to the UK with his family last year.

The outgoing Tomkinson, who has been group CFO and a board director for the past six years, has worked for 2 Sisters for more than a decade in total over two spells – the first of which saw him work as finance director of its UK poultry arm from 2012.

He also played a major role in the £346m acquisition of Northern Foods in 2011 and the £80m acquisition of the UK arm of Vion Foods in 2013.

He left 2 Sisters in 2016 to pursue a business venture, rejoining in April 2018.

After handing over to Williams next month, Tomkinson would focus on “key projects” until his official departure date, reporting as normal to chairman Richard Pennycook, 2 Sisters said.

Tomkinson said he would be taking a career break before deciding on new opportunities and “a period of recharging my batteries with my family”.

Pennycook credited him with making a “significant contribution over the years and his considerable talents helped transform 2 Sisters for the better”.

He played “a critical role in helping us to overcome some tough external challenges in recent years and setting us up for future success”, Pennycook added, while “wishing him and his family all the very best”.

Tomkinson said he had been on “an incredible journey at 2 Sisters and I’m proud to have played a role in transforming the company”.

He added: “The priorities when I rejoined were to improve trading performance, reduce debt and the pension deficit, strengthen financial controls and rebuild the finance team, and I’m proud of the progress made.”