Accolade Wines has announced that chief executive Troy Christensen is leaving the company.

The shock news from the Hardy’s and Echo Falls owner follows a management shake-up in the summer that saw European commercial manager James Lousada leave the business.

The announcement of Christensen’s departure, described as “by mutual agreement”, was made by Accolade today and is effective immediately.

The company said it was looking for a new CEO – it has appointed recruitment firm Korn/Ferry International to conduct a global search – and added that Christensen would assist the board with the transition to a new CEO.

John Haddock, managing director of Champ Private Equity, which acquired Accolade in 2011, said: “Troy has performed a very valuable role in the first phase of the Champ III Fund’s ownership and we wish him well in his future endeavours. His departure does not signal any fundamental change in strategy. We will be looking for a new leader to drive the execution of the board’s strategies.”

In August, Accolade split the role of European commercial general manager in two, with Continental Europe being run separately from the UK and Ireland. At the time, CEO Christensen  said the two markets operated at different levels of maturity, and that creating two new roles would allow the company to act with greater pace and flexibility. James Lousada, who held the combined role, was invited to take on the UK &  Ireland brief but quit the business, and the role was taken by Paul Schaafsma. The Continental role will be taken by Ted Popov, formerly sales director for mainland Europe.

See this weekend’s The Grocer magazine for Paul Schaafsma’s views on government alcohol policy.