Leading online grocery store, Ocado, appoints former Rolls-Royce CFO, Stephen Daintith.
Ocado Leading the Online Grocery Market
As the nation shows an overriding switch to online grocery shopping, Ocado is one of the companies reaping the benefits. The grocery company is going from strength to strength, showing a huge surge since the beginning of lockdown. Already, the company’s share price has increased by more than 4000%. These figures do not seem to be slowing down anytime soon as people show a preference for online shopping as we enter the “new normal”.
Saying Goodbye to CFO
In recent news, the British grocery giant has announced that their chief financial officer will be stepping down. Duncan Tatton-Brown served as CFO for eight years but will step down as a result of family circumstances. The CFO was directly involved in Ocado’s journey since 2012, positively contributing to the growth and strategy of the company. Tatton-Brown will continue his role until November 22nd 2020; from then on, he will serve as a non-executive director of three Ocado units.
New CFO
Tatton-Brown’s successor will be former Rolls-Royce CFO Stephen Daintith. It is an exciting time to join the company as Ocado continues to experience growth and large-scale financial success. Daintith boasts an impressive resume; his former career credits include CFO of Daily Mail and senior roles at Dow Jones and British American Tobacco, amongst others.
The Fall of Rolls-Royce
Though timely for Daintith and Ocado, Rolls-Royce is sure to acutely feel his absence. The company has experienced 1 billion pounds of cost cuts this year. It hopes to raise a minimum of 2 billion pounds to balance their reduced profit during the Covid pandemic. They experienced a record loss of 5.4 billion pounds in the first half of this year. Equity analysts predicted a loss of £191.8 million; this was exceeded at an operating loss of £1.67 billion. Daintith will stay for a transition period and help them ease the financial hit.
