• Robert Schofield to leave when successor found
• Hovis owner struggling with debts after RHM purchase
The boss of Britain's biggest food producer has swallowed his pride and agreed to step down. Robert Schofield, under pressure over poor financial performance at Premier Foods, told shareholders he would leave as chief executive after a successor had been found.
Shares rose 4% to 32p as the City welcomed the departure of Schofield. He built the company, which owns brands such as Hovis bread and Mr Kipling cakes, into a huge business only to see it struggle for survival under a mountain of debt.
Schofield, who is approaching 60, told the company's annual meeting that he had decided the time was right "to plan for my retirement" after nearly 10 years of leading Premier. He believed he had brought together "a powerful portfolio of brands" which could still grow further.
Ronnie Bell, the Premier chairman, described Schofield as an "outstanding" chief executive who would remain fully in charge of the business until a replacement had been found. He would leave no later than April next year.
Schofield, formerly UK managing director at United Biscuits, joined Premier in 2001 and became chief executive 12 months later. He promoted the idea that the company should be floated on the stock market. It debuted at 144p a share.
He then embarked on a number of ambitious acquisitions, most notably in 2007 with the £1.2bn purchase of RHM, formerly Rank Hovis McDougall. It provided a range of household name brands – but also heavy debts.
The deal was done at the top of the market – as was the acquisition of Campbell Soup's UK and Irish operations – and by 2008 Premier was forced to write down the price of various assets leaving it with group losses of more than £400m.
Since then Schofield has gradually been offloading assets in a determined effort to reduce debts that reached well over £1bn. In February Premier sold its canning business for £182m to Princes, a part of Mitsubishi in Japan, while the month before it disposed of its meat-free businesses, including Quorn, to private equity group Exponent for £205m.
The Premier annual meeting was hit by further controversy when 16% of shareholders voted against a resolution to allow the company to make limited financial donations to political causes.
A spokesman for the company insisted that Premier had no intention of supporting particular parties but wanted merely to ensure it was in no danger of breaching new legislation on such donations.