Nigel Trood, MD of Red Bull UK, has left to “seek out new challenges”.

The former Britvic and Sainsbury’s buyer spent nearly five years in the job overseeing a period of significant growth for the energy drinks business.

“I’d been at the company for nearly 10 years - five years as MD - and I loved every minute of it,” said Trood. “However, throughout my career I’ve known when the time was right to move on and I found that my focus was increasingly shifting to other things.”

Following his departure in December, Trood said he planned to dedicate more time to his non-executive director role at Global Ethics, owner of the ethical brand One.

“I joined the company in a non-exec capacity two years ago and I wanted to spend more time on it but I wasn’t able to because of my Red Bull commitments. It’s got some great people behind it and the brand has moved on from just selling water to offering a wide portfolio of different products.”

Trood added that, in addition to spending more time helping and advising One, he was open to new offers.

“From when I started working for Red Bull in 2002 to when I left it was an incredible success story,” he said. “What we achieved was amazing. Looking towards the future, my eyes are wide open and I am ready for the next challenge.”

A Red Bull spokesman said that former UK sales director Andy Shaw was taking on the role of general manager for the UK. Shaw was previously general manager for Red Bull Spain and Portugal.