CHRISTIAN Salvesen parted company with its chief executive yesterday, just weeks after a ruined consignment of defrosted peas forced the logistics group to issue the latest in a string of profit warnings.
Edward Roderick, 50, can expect to receive a (pounds) 1m-plus payoff, after toughing out a large protest vote against his two-year rolling contract at the company's last annual meeting.
Roderick, 50, was paid (pounds) 429,000 in 2002/2003, and pension payments should take his severance package comfortably into seven figures. He also has options on more than 1.44 million shares that can be cashed in after 2010.
Roderick's departure, after seven years at the helm, completes a reshuffle which has seen Salvesen appoint a new chairman, finance director and managing director of its UK business in the last year. In a statement to the Stock Exchange, the company said Roderick's duties will be assumed by chairman David Fish, until a successor is
appointed.
Salvesen was founded as a trading station in Leith in the 1850s and has its roots in whaling and fishing, mainly in the South Atlantic. The Salvesen family retains a 30% stake in the Northampton-based group.
Roderick's stewardship of the company came under intense scrutiny in February last year, when Salvesen ordered a review of its UK operations after warning that annual profits would be as much as 20% below market expectations. A cost-cutting drive failed to prevent half-year profits falling 34%, to (pounds) 10.1m, when the group updated the market in December.
The latest profits warning, last month, drove shares down by 14%, after the company said storage problems at a pea-processing plant would wipe (pounds) 3m off the full-year surplus.
Analysts expect the group to post pre-tax profits of between (pounds) 15.7m and (pounds) 17.4m for the 12 months to March 31.
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