Jonathan Webster set to leave Hardys & Hansons
Jonathan Webster expects to leave his role as managing director of Hardys & Hansons at the end of next month, once the Nottinghamshire brewer has been fully integrated into Greene King.
Greene King chief executive Rooney Anand said Webster had agreed to work on the integration process following the Suffolk brewer's £271m acquisition of H&H, but that no permanent role had been earmarked for him.
"Jonathan signed up to complete the integration of Hardys & Hansons operations into Greene King and that process will take until the end of January," Anand told thepublican.com.
Anand added that the H&H situation was "a different scenario" to that of Belhaven, many of whose senior management team including chief executive Stuart Ross continue to work at the company after it was bought by Greene King last year.
"If there are opportunities here and if Jonathan wants to take them then that is something we can look at," he said, although he added that the H&H man might prefer to seek such opportunities elsewhere.
Webster told thepublican.com that no discussions had taken place regarding a possible role at Greene King "and as it stands at the moment I'll be leaving [the company] on January 31st".
It had been a very busy year, Webster said. "My focus has been on integrating our managed estate into Greene King and ensuring we don't lose the things we've achieved here at Hardys & Hansons. Our managed pubs have got a few things that theirs don't," he said.
Anand said the combination of H&H and Greene King was progressing well. Echoing Webster's comments, he said: "We're learning a lot from them, and in some areas, such as food skills, they're ahead of us in the managed area."
Greene King acquired the Nottingham-based H&H for £271m in September and announced recently it was closing down H&H's Kimberley brewery.
It announced half-year results yesterday which saw group sales up 16 per cent to £419.2m and pre-tax profits up 20 per cent to £67.1m in the six months to October 15 2006.
