Long-serving Elizabeth Shaw managing director Malachy McReynolds is to stand down at the end of this year.
During his 12 years at the helm of the premium chocolate supplier, Mr McReynolds has steered the Bristol-based group through probably the most turbulent period in its 130-year history.
He led a £6m management buy-out (MBO) in 2000 from Dutch owner Leaf, and stayed on after two subsequent transfers of ownership. Manufacturing at the firm
’s historic Greenbank factory, which had opened in 1903 and once employed hundreds of workers, ended in 2006.
Production of its two key brands – Elizabeth Shaw Mint Crisp, launched in 1937, and Famous Names liqueur-filled chocolates, launched in 1961 – has since been outsourced to six sites around the UK and Europe with the company now operating out of an office in Pucklechurch.
Mr McReynolds, a familiar face at business at business events around Bristol and a strident supporter of business in the region through the CBI and other organisations, said: “It is now time for me to tackle some new challenges while continuing my involvement with a business I have been proud to be associated with in Bristol over the last decade.”
He will continue to undertake some specific assignments for the company under a consultancy arrangement through 2013 and beyond.
His position in the company will be taken by commercial director Karen Crawford, who joined in June 2010 and has been in her current role since November 2011.
Karen added: “I am looking forward to continuing the growth of the Elizabeth Shaw brand, building on the new product launches we have undertaken in the last 18 months. I am pleased that Malachy has decided to continue his involvement with the business, and that I will be able to draw on his 20-plus years’ experience of the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) market in the UK and Europe.”
The company can trace its origins back to 1881 when it was established as HJ Packer in Armoury Square, St Pauls.
Today it brands are available in all major multiple grocers and many specialist retail outlets in the UK and are also exported throughout the world.
