Business

C&C names new finance chief to allow CEO drop dual role

UK drinks industry veteran Andrew Andrea will join C&C in March after stint leading Marston’s

C&C, the company behind the Bulmers brand in Ireland, has just named UK industry veteran Andrew Andrea a new chief financial officer. Photograph: Cyril Byrne

Joe Brennan
Mon Dec 18 2023 - 07:55

C&C has named UK drinks industry veteran Andrew Andrea as its next finance chief, which will allow the cider and beer maker’s current chief executive and interim chief financial officer (CFO), Patrick McMahon, to drop double jobbing.

Mr McMahon, who was appointed CFO in 2020, took over as chief executive of the group in May, but has also temporarily held on to the finance function as the company carried out a search for his successor.

Group chairman Ralph Findlay became executive chairman at the time. He will step back into the role of non-executive chairman shortly after Mr Andrea joins the group on May 1st.

Mr Andrea (54) has served in senior roles at Marston’s, a leading listed independent brewing and pub retailing business in the UK, for more than 20 years, most recently as chief executive between October 2021 and last month, according to his LinkedIn profile.

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The chartered accountant previously held roles with Guinness Brewing Worldwide and Bass Brewers Limited.

“Andrew brings a rare depth of experience within our industry to C&C and we are delighted to welcome him to the business,” said Mr McMahon. “We continue to focus on building C&C as the premium drinks and distribution business in the UK and Irish markets. Andrew will bring invaluable expertise and insight to our team and help deliver on that ambition.”

C&C, which is behind the Bulmers and Magners cider brands, has seen its shares decline by almost 17 per cent over the past 12 months.

The drinks group said in October that its net revenue in the six months to August rose almost 7 per cent on the year as the company got back on track following the delayed implementation of a new tech system in its UK wholesale distribution business.

But profit slumped 43 per cent to €30.5 million in the period – the first half of its 2024 fiscal year – with the bulk of that due to the disruption caused by the new system implementation, which delayed price increases, caused additional running costs and lost business as the company’s ability to deliver full orders on time was affected.

The Irish-based but London-listed company also announced at the time that it plans to distribute as much as €150 million to shareholders over the next three years by way of dividends and “capital returns” – which is seen as code for share buy-backs.

“Following an operationally challenging 2023 for C&C, with the UK distribution operations adversely impacted by ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system roll-out problems, this is a positive step for the C&C investment case, providing organisational clarity into 2024,” said Goodbody Stockbrokers analyst Patrick Higgins.

“Mr Andrea brings a significant breadth of industry expertise across both CFO and CEO functions, across both branded alcohol and on-trade operational insights, which should prove valuable to the group as it looks to continue the rebuild and growth of its UK and Irish branded drinks and distribution operations.”

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan is Markets Correspondent of The Irish Times

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