Associated British Foods has appointed a new group chief financial officer and a CEO for Primark.
Joana Edwards joins as CFO with immediate effect after serving in the role on an interim basis since March last year. She was previously group financial controller, having joined ABF in 2020.
Edwards has more than 30 years of international finance experience across the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa, with particular expertise in fmcg and consumer-facing industries, including retail.
Before joining ABF, Edwards was group financial controller at L’Oréal, having previously held a number of senior finance director roles across the beauty group’s regions and business units.
ABF also announced the appointment of Eoin Tonge as chief executive of Primark, a position he has held on an interim basis since March last year.
He joined the ABF board in February 2023 and took up the position of group CFO in April of that year, having previously served as CFO and chief strategy officer at Marks & Spencer.
Prior to M&S, Tonge held various positions at Greencore, including managing director of grocery and CFO.
ABF said during his time as interim CEO at Primark, Tonge had developed and begun to implement a strategy to strengthen Primark’s customer proposition, including improving the product offer, sharpening value perception and enhancing digital and Marketing capabilities.
ABF also appointed Filip Ekvall to the newly created role of Primark chief commercial officer, starting on 1 September this year. He brings almost 20 years of experience in international clothing retail, the large majority of which was at H&M Group.
ABF CEO George Weston said Tonge had demonstrated the “leadership, judgement and consumer insight needed to enable Primark to capture the significant opportunities ahead”.
“The changes he is implementing are at an early stage but are already having a tangible benefit in a challenging environment,” he added.
Tonge said: “Over the past year my belief in Primark has only grown. My priorities are to strengthen Primark’s core customer proposition of disruptive value leadership, enhance our digital engagement, pursue international growth and drive greater operational effectiveness and efficiency.”
Weston said Edwards had also demonstrated a “clear understanding of ABF’s business and operating model, rigour in the execution of her role and a passion for building high performing teams”.
“Joana will continue to play a key role in delivering the group’s strategic priorities. Her experience will be invaluable as we continue to drive long-term, sustainable growth,” he added.
Edwards said: “During my time at ABF, I have worked closely with our teams across the business and have seen first-hand the strength of our portfolio, the resilience of our model and the depth of talent we have across the organisation. I will focus on disciplined capital allocation, cost management and cash generation, while ensuring we invest behind the areas of greatest strategic potential.”
No comments yet