This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Fuller’s makes redundancies and reshuffles board after Asahi acquisition
UK pub and brewing company Fuller’s has made a series of changes to its board structure shortly after its beer business was bought by Japanese drinks giant Asahi.
Fuller’s sold its cider, soft drinks, wine, distribution and wholesaling business, along with its beer and brewing operations, to Asahi earlier this year in a deal worth £250 million. The Competition and Markets Authority has said it has “no further questions” in regard to the purchase, which also included Fuller’s brewery in Griffin and Cornish orchards, craft beer brand Dark Star and Nectar Imports.
In a note sent to shareholders last week, the company announced a reshuffle of its board that would see three members made redundant. The disposal of the beer business will result in both the managing director of Fuller’s Inns, Jonathan Swaime, and MD of Fuller’s brewing business, Simon Dodd resigning from their posts by the end of 2019.
Additionally, Richard Fuller will step down as Corporate Affairs Director next year.
Dodd will resign as MD of Fuller’s Beer Company and as a director on 30 April 2019, while Swaine will resign from his post and as a director of the company on 11 October.
Fuller will resign on 31 January 2020, but will remain on the board as a non-executive director.
The note explained, that while Fuller’s beer business helped the company to maintain a point of difference in a competitive UK market, chairman Michael Turner said the company’s pub and hotel business would be a “driver of future growth”, and generates 87% of its operated profits.
In terms of appointments, the note said that Fred Turner, currently heading the company’s tenanted pub business, will become the Company’s retail director, responsible for the managed division of Fuller’s Inns, and will join the board as an Executive Director in June 2019.
Last month, Fuller’s head brewer, Georgina Young, left the company to become head brewer at Bath Ales, which was bought by Cornwall-based St Austell in 2016.