Business

Irishman Eoin Tonge quits M&S to take up role with Primark owner

Retailer’s finance and strategy chief, a veteran of food group Greencore, will retire in April 2023

Eoin Tonge is taking up a new role at AB Foods, owner of Primark and Penneys. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill

Thu Jul 21 2022 - 13:22

Marks & Spencer (M&S) said on Thursday that finance and strategy chief, Irishman Eoin Tonge would leave the British clothing and food retailer to take up a role at Associated British Foods (ABF), owner of budget fashion chain Primark/Penneys.

Mr Tonge (49), who missed out on the chief executive job at M&S following Steve Rowe’s retirement in May, will join AB Foods no later than February 2023, succeeding John Bason, who is retiring as finance director at the end of April 2023 after 23 years.

As per his notice period, Greencore veteran and UCD graduate Mr Tonge will stay at M&S through its first half results in November.

While M&S is one of the most famous names in British business, AB Foods is a far bigger company, spanning retail, food manufacturing, sugar, agriculture and ingredients. Its market value of £13.3 billion (€15.6 billion) dwarfs M&S’s £2.8 billion.

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Shares in AB Foods were up 1.3 per cent in mid-morning trade, while M&S was down 1.2 per cent, extending its 2022 losses to 39 per cent.

“We think Eoin is a good choice given his experience in both food and clothing,” said analysts at Barclays.

Mr Tonge joined M&S just over two years ago and helped steer the group through the Covid-19 pandemic. He was previously chief financial officer of Greencore.

“Our financial controls, reporting and financial discipline are in a far stronger place than when he arrived,” M&S chairman Archie Norman said.

AB Foods chief executive George Weston said Mr Tonge was an “ideal successor” to Mr Bason. — Reuters

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