All members of Aryzta’s executive management team including, CEO Owen Killian and Patrick McEniff, chief financial officer and chief operating officer along with John Yamin, CEO Americas, have tendered their resignations and intend to step down from their respective roles at the end of the current financial year.

This move comes following a profit warning issued by the company last month.

The bakery business behind Cuisine de France said that profits for the first five months of trading up until the end of December 2016 were 20% behind the prior year.

The company had enjoyed success up until recently but investor’s patience had been running thin due to a combination of what investors saw as non-core acquisitions, slowing sales as a result of contract losses and a struggling US market have raised questions about the future direction of the company.

Killian, the Roscommon man who has been at the helm since it was spun out of IAWS, had delivered for the company and shareholders.

Through a combination of both organic growth and acquisitions the company grew sales to over €3bn, had a market value of over €6bn and was generating profits in excess of €0.5bn.

New members with immediate effect

Shares in the business had lost almost two thirds of their value over the past 24 months and closed at €27.81 on Wednesday. The most recent cut saw €1.2bn knocked off the value of the company in one week.

The company said in order to support an orderly transition, provide stability for the business and management continuity for staff, customers and suppliers, the Board has appointed three new members to the executive management team with immediate effect.

The new appointments are Dermot Murphy, chief operating officer (COO) Europe; Ronan Minahan COO Americas and Robert O’Boyle, COO APMEA (Asia Pacific Middle East Africa).

Surging shares

Aryzta shares have rallied in early trading on Tuesday morning following the announcement that Killian and others were to resign.

As of 9.20am, shares are currently trading at over €30, up more than 9% on Monday's close.

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