Greencore’s Philips taps former DAA colleague for CFO role

Greencore chief executive Dalton Philips has tapped Catherine Gubbins, a former senior colleague at DAA, to become the convenience food maker’s next chief financial officer.

The Dublin-based sandwich maker said on Tuesday that Ms Gubbins, chief financial officer of the airport operator, who briefly filled in as interim chief executive late last year after Mr Philips quit for Greencore, is expected to take up her new role early next year.

Ms Gubbins has been with DAA for almost nine years. Mr Philips served as its chief executive for five years.

“I’m very pleased to see Catherine joining our team. She has a proven track record as a CFO and has shown outstanding leadership through both smooth and more challenging times,” said Mr Philips.

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“Having worked with Catherine, I know what a great asset she will be to our business as we continue on our journey to rebuild profitability and create the platform necessary to support our future growth.”

[ Greencore’s sales rise with help of ‘meal deals’ ]

Ms Gubbins succeeds Emma Hynes as Greencore’s finance chief. Ms Hynes had signalled in April that she planned to leave the company.

DAA, where former Ryanair chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs is now in charge, said in a separate statement that it would begin a “comprehensive process” to find a new CFO immediately.

Greencore, which drove the industrialisation of the production of the humble sandwich in the UK over the past two decades, has endured a difficult few years as it was hit by the pandemic – when its officer worker consumer base switched to working from home – Brexit, labour shortages and inflation.

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However, the company said in July that its underlying sales for the company’s financial third quarter to the end of June had risen by 9.3 per cent to £495.5 million (€579.3 million) as the company continued to pass on its own rising costs and customers increasingly bought its sandwiches as part of supermarket meal deals.

Mr Philips said at the time that the food-to-go category remained “hugely relevant to consumers” as they contend with the cost-of-living crisis and it is particularly notable that 52 per cent of supermarket sandwiches are now bought as part of a meal deal, up from 46 per cent this time last year.

[ Can Greencore’s new boss Dalton Philips put fresh filling back in limp sandwich maker? ]

Greencore said sales growth of combo deals was being driven in part by customer demand for “premium meal deals” which include items such as premium sandwiches, salads and sushi. Total food-to-go sales rose by 8.1 per cent to £335.3 million, driven by price increases by also 2 per cent sales volume growth.

Sales in other convenience food categories, including chilled Thai curries and pasta dishes, soups, sauces and quiches, expanded by 4.7 per cent to £160.1 million in the reporting quarter.

The company has seen its share price rally by more than 23 per cent on the London Stock Exchange so far this year, but remains down almost 55 per cent over the past five years.