Mitchells & Butlers, the All Bar One, Harvester and O'Neills group, has found a new chief executive after a prolonged search, poaching the chief operating officer of rival Marstons.
Alistair Darby - who spent 15 years at Marstons - will join M&B in October, replacing Bob Ivell who will revert back to his role as non-executive chairman. The appointment follows a period of turmoil for the group, with boadroom wrangles and failed bids from major shareholder Piedmont, the vehicle of currency trader Joe Lewis. Elpida, run by horseracing tycoons JP McManus and John Magnier, also has a large stake in M&B.
M&B has been looking for a permanent chief executive since Adam Fowle was ousted in March last year. Fowle's replacement as interim chief executive Jeremy Blood stepped down last October, since when Ivell has been holding the two top jobs.
M&B's shares have climbed 2.7p to 281.2p on the news, while Marstons is down 1.5p at 114p. Jeffrey Harwood at Oriel Securities said:
This marks the successful conclusion to a very lengthy search. We have always been impressed with Alistair Darby and expect that he will be able to make a series of improvements at Mitchells & Butlers. These will centre on moves to modernise the company and will build on the steps that have been taken by Bob Ivell.
There is good scope for the new chief executive to make a number of changes to make the company more attractive to shareholders, including a return to the dividend list.
This announcement removes one of the main negatives, but the group still has an unusual share register with Piedmont and Elpida owning 25.8% and 20.7% respectively, thus having effective control of the company.
