Warburg Pincus's Premier Foods loses 2nd top exec in a row

Greg Gille
05 February 2013

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Premier Foods COO Geoff Eaton is due to step down just a week after the appointment of a new CEO for the business.

Eaton had joined the company in October last year and was appointed by former CEO Mike Clarke. Clarke stepped down last week and was replaced by new CEO Gavin Darby.

Following Darby's appointment, Premier Foods started moving towards a flatter executive management structure designed to enable commercial and functional management to report directly to the CEO. The role of COO was axed as part of this reshuffle.

Premier was established in 1999 following the public-to-private takeover of Hillsdown Holdings, where Premier was created to manage food-related activities.

Lion Capital (then Hicks Muse & Furst) backed the buyout of Premier Foods in 1999 with an equity investment amounting to around £171m. Lion provided further capital to the company in 2002.

In March 2009, Warburg Pincus invested £64m in Premier in exchange for a 10.3% stake in the business. The deal formed part of a £404m capital raising for the company, which was part of its plan to reduce debt from £1.78bn to £1.4bn. The GP increased its stake to 17.7% in August 2009.

Premier announced plans to shut down two bakery sites in Greenford and Birmingham next year, in addition to the previously announced closure of its Eastleigh bakery, in November last year.