Phil Pegler, the operations director who has overseen the conversion of 750 Spirit managed pubs to lease at Punch, is taking redundancy, the Morning Advertiser has learnt.
The conversion process is nearing completion around 18 months after it started. It is understood that Pegler has opted to take redundancy having decided there were no appropriate opportunities within Punch. Pegler was a regional operations director at Punch prior to becoming operations director with responsibility for the conversions.
Director of customers services Francis Patton said: "There's no opportunity that Phil fancied within Punch." Pegler's redundancy is one of a handful of senior departures as Punch reduces its regions from 16 to 12 in the wake of the sale of 869 pubs to Admiral. It is understood that Jonathan Thomas, the regional director for South Wales has also opted to take redundancy.
The redundancy process at Punch, which is likely to see around 20 departures in total, is expected to be complete by mid-August.