Hilton Foods has announced CEO Steve Murrells is leaving the company with immediate effect.
It comes after the company cut its profit forecast due to an ongoing forced shutdown of a seafood factory in Greece. As a result of the closure, Hilton’s share price has halved since the start of the year.
In a statement, Hilton said the board and Murrells agreed “now is the right time to search for a new leader to take the business forward”.
Following Murrells’ departure, Hilton will be led by current non-executive chair Mark Allen while the board considers CEO succession. Allen was previously CEO of Dairy Crest and oversaw the company’s £1bn sale to Canadian dairy giant Saputo.
“It looked inevitable there would be change after the recent trading update,” said Peel Hunt analyst Charles Hall. “This is an important first step in restoring shareholder value.”
Read more: How Steve Murrells is making Hilton Food Group ‘a great British success story’
Murrells helped establish Hilton Foods in 1994 while working as Tesco’s trading director. Back then, Hilton was entirely reliant on the UK’s largest supermarket and became only its second ever retail packing partner.
Murrells joined the meat supplier as CEO in April 2023 after spells as Co-op boss and leading the retailer’s food business.
It is now the UK’s third-biggest food supplier, according to OC&C’s annual report, with annual revenues around £4bn.
Panmure Liberum analyst Anubhav Malhotra said that despite its recent issues, ”Hilton Foods made significant progress during Mr. Murrells two years tenure, including expansion into Canada and Saudi Arabia, deeper client relationships, stepped-up operational efficiency and automation, sale of a strategic stake in Foods Connected and disposal of Fairfax Meadow.”
Murrells said: “Hilton Foods is a great business and I have been privileged to serve as its CEO.
“I’m particularly proud of the progress we have made in significantly expanding our international operations, most notably the expansion into Canada and Saudi Arabia.”
Hilton sold Fairfax Meadow, its foodservice meat business, in September in a strategic shift to refocus on retail partnerships.
It bought the business for £23.8m in 2021 as it sought to expand into the UK’s foodservice sector in the wake of easing Covid restrictions, but opted to change tack after the company’s core retail sales proved its main source of growth.
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