Danish Crown has announced that Steve Francis, the CEO of its Tulip Food Company subsidiary, has stepped down from his position as part of the pork producer’s business transformation programme.
Francis had held the role since 2016, during which time he oversaw the restructuring of Tulip’s operations into four dedicated divisions, and helped the company’s UK division return to profit.
Danish Crown CEO and chairman of Tulip Jais Valeur will assume the role of executive chairman of Tulip in Francis’ place, and he will work with the Tulip executive team to manage the day-to-day operations of the company.
Valeur said: “Steve leaves Tulip Ltd in a far stronger state than when he arrived and I would like to personally thank him on behalf of the Danish Crown Board for his outstanding contribution.
“Customer relationships are back to health and their confidence in our business has been restored. Employees are much more engaged in the strategic direction of the business and we have strong governance and leadership in place across all four divisions.
“And, critically, Tulip has moved on from recording significant weekly losses to much-improved trading performance.
“We are now moving into the next, lengthier phase of Tulip’s turnaround programme, which is to rebuild the customer portfolio we lost over previous years and restore Tulip’s position as the UK industry leader.
“My role will be to work with the Executive Team within Tulip Ltd to ensure we continue on the journey we have embarked upon ourselves and leverage for our customers all the opportunities we have through closer co-operation within the wider Danish Crown group, in order to deliver world-class performance levels.”
The news comes days after Tulip Food Company acquired Dutch bacon manufacturer Baconspecialist Zandbergen, as part of the company’s strategy to expand its presence in the European pork market.
Source: FoodBev
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