Tobacco giant Imperial Brands has appointed a new chair as its latest results reveal a fall in profits.
The company, whose headquarters are in Bristol, has announced that Therese Esperdy will take over from Mark Williamson on January 1, 2020.
The news comes as Imperial Brands releases its interim results, which report a slide in operating profits to £2.19billion - down from £2.4billion in 2018.
Outgoing chief executive Alison Cooper, who announced her departure last month , admitted the company’s results were “below our expectations”.
The company has blamed tough trading conditions for its next-generation products (NGP), which include vaping devices, saying sales were impacted by “regulatory uncertainty” in the US.
However, Ms Cooper says the business has plans to help drive "stronger performance” next year and is planning to scale up investment as regulatory uncertainties improve.
“2019 has been a challenging year with results below our expectations,” she said. “Our resilient tobacco value creation model continues to produce high-margin sales growth and is well-placed to deliver sustained profitable growth in the years ahead.
“Although we grew NGP revenues by around 50 per cent, this was below the level we expected to deliver. Our delivery was also impacted by an increasingly competitive environment and regulatory uncertainty in the USA.
“Growth in Europe was also slower, despite achieving leading retail shares in several markets. We have taken the learnings from this year to reset our NGP investment plans for 2020, prioritising the markets and categories with the highest potential for sustainable, profitable growth.
"Our priority going forward is to optimise the profit and cash generation from our tobacco assets, while improving growth in NGP with greater discipline and a more tightly focused business model.”
Ms Esperdy, who retired from JP Morgan in 2015, will lead the search for a new chief executive to replace Ms Cooper.
She added: "It is a privilege for me to step up as chairman at Imperial, a company with a rich heritage, some great brands and tremendous people.
"Clearly this is a challenging time, but there are many opportunities ahead and I am looking forward to working closely with the team to drive the business forward and create value for our shareholders."
