Innocent CEO Douglas Lamont is leaving the juices and smoothies brand to lead Tony’s Chocolonely.
Lamont will take up his new post at the helm of the ethical chocolatier in the autumn. He will be replaced at Innocent by Nick Canney, currently its European MD.
Tony’s was “a fantastic brand with a real clarity around what it wants to do – the model works”, Lamont told The Grocer.
He also pointed to Innocent’s evolution. “Nine years ago less than 10% of Innocent’s trade was international – now it’s more than 70%,” he said. “Sales have increased in Europe from £200m to £500m. We’ve also launched into Asia, built the most sustainable manufacturing plant in the world, and become the number one juice business in Europe.”
The news comes as this year Innocent upgraded its B Corp score to 105.2 points, having committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2025, trialling a 50% plant plastic and 50% recycled plastic bottle and donating 10% of profits to charity.
After suffering the loss of on-the-go and impulse occasions in 2020, when it shed 10% of sales (£28.4m), the brand recovered in 2021, growing 10.4% to £269.7m [NielsenIQ 52 w/e 22 January 2022].
“My plan at Tony’s is to ‘play it again, Sam’ and grow the business commercially,” said Lamont.
Canney, who joined Innocent as head of its UK & Ireland business in 2015, was promoted to lead its European operations in 2019. He had “helped grow the brand to be the biggest healthy drinks company in Europe”, Innocent said, “overseeing the expansion in Germany, France and the UK”.
Prior to Innocent, he was VP for sales and marketing at Coca-Cola Enterprises GB.
Canney was “the right man to step in, through his experience over seven years and also in terms of his commitment to the ethos”, said Lamont.
Canney said the promotion was “sad, exciting and a bit scary”. “I’m sad because I’ve worked for Douglas for seven years. He inspired me to come to Innocent, we’ve worked very closely, and it’s been a very successful time for the business.”
There were two ways to grow Innocent, he said. “There’s the geographic piece. Although Europe is big for us now, there’s lots of gaps and growth potential. For example, the chilled juice category is £1bn in the UK but only €400m in Germany. We’ve still got stacks of headroom to replicate that.
“The other opportunity is: what’s to say we don’t look at other drink or food segments in the future? How far do we go? There are no imminent plans [beyond juices and smoothies] but the vision has always been bold. Over a 20 to 30-year period, who’s to say where the Innocent brand will be extended?”
No comments yet