He joins Peter Furness-Smith, who has been managing director since 1998, and is the sixth generation of the c130-strong company’s founding family.
He will be directly responsible for production, property, finance and the company’s tenanted division.
Following a career as a corporate tax solicitor in the City, McMullen subsequently gained an MBA at Imperial College, London, before joining the company in 2010. Since then he has held a number of roles across the company and was appointed to the Board in 2013 together with Heydon Mizon, the retail director.
In addition to Tom, Fergus McMullen (also sixth generation) is the executive director with responsibility for production and sales.
Charles Brims, Chairman, said “Tom has made an excellent contribution to the Company’s success and I congratulate him on this appointment. We have a strong management team, with a healthy mix of family and independent directors.”
Furness-Smith said “I have enjoyed working closely with Tom who has brought a refreshing perspective to the opportunities facing our industry. He has demonstrated good leadership and I look forward to working with him in the coming years as we implement our successful long term strategy.”
McMullens increased its pre-tax profits by 22% to £9.25m for the year ended 27th September 2014. It recently published half year accounts show a further increase of 15%.
Furness-Smith told M&C that the group had seen like-for-like sales across its managed pubs increase 3% in July.
The company said it had strong balance sheet which enabled it to acquire new pubs as opportunities arise.
It also announces two internal promotions: Alison Penfold to company secretary and Sandra Sheahan to Company HR executive.