Lovering to quit as M&B chairman

John Lovering has announced he is to quit as chairman of Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) after just 12 months in the role.

The non-executive directors, under the leadership of Simon Burke, have already started the search for a successor. Lovering will also assist in that search and step down when a candidate is found.

Lovering joined M&B at its AGM last January, displacing Simon Laffin after a bitter shareholder battle spearheaded by investor Piedmont.

He put in place a strategy to ditch its wet-led pubs to focus on growing its key food-led brands.

In the past year, M&B raised over £550m fro disposals and achieved stronger capex returns and improved operating margins.

"It has been a huge privilege to be Chairman of Mitchells & Butlers," said Lovering.

"The company is now on a much firmer footing than when I joined last year. Our board is strong and we have strengthened our executive team with five new executive committee members."

He added: "Group profits have improved significantly in the last year thanks to our focus of switching from volume to spend per head and our core brands are successfully implementing their site expansion goals.

"We are continuing to trade well and gain market share. I would like to wish the business and its employees every success for the future."

Revolt​

Meanwhile, speculation is rife that M&B could face a second shareholder revolt in two years at its annual genera meeting this week.

Investor activist Pirc has advised stakeholders to vote against the re-election of six non-executive directors, claiming they are not independent.

It said that the directors were all nominated by Piedmont — the investment vehicle of Joe Lewis, which owns 22.5% of M&B.