Ford to step down at Tattershall Castle Group

David Ford is to step down from his role as chief executive of Tattershall Castle Group (TCG), the pub and bar group backed by Alchemy Partners, M&C Report understands.

Ford is to leave the group in March, after almost four years at the helm, to take a chief executive role at a "service organisation".

Ford told M&C that he was leaving because of the "uniqueness of the opportunity" and not because he wanted to step down at TCG. He said: "I'm going to be joining a very well-run business and working with a group of people that I worked with a long time ago and am very much looking forward to the challenge.

"That's the main motivation. I do find some of the issues facing the pub and bar industry, such as the opposition of the government, tiresome, but the main reason for me leaving is because of the uniqueness of the opportunity."

The current non-executive chairman of TCG, David Rimmer, will become executive chairman. The executive team, such as Nigel Wright, chief operating officer, and Mark Fontaine, finance director, will report into Rimmer.

TCG operates about 150 managed pub and bar sites across the UK. It was formed when Alchemy bought a package of sites from Spirit Group, now part of Punch Taverns.