Carr’s hires boss of top co-operative in reshuffle

Carr’s Milling Industries eschewed best corporate governance practice by elevating its chief executive to chairman amid a boardroom shake-up which has seen the poaching of Tim Davies from farm co-operative Openfield.

The flour-to-nutrients group, which in July revealed the departure next year of finance director Ron Wood, said on Tuesday that its chairman, Lord Inglewood, is to step down too, after seven years in the post.

Rather than seeking an external candidate for chairman, or promoting a non-executive director, as considered best practice in UK corporate governance, Carr’s is to replace Lord Inglewood with Chris Holmes, the group’s chief executive

Mr Holmes will in turn be succeeded by Mr Davie, managing director at Openfield, the UK’s top farmer-owned grain co-operative, since its creation in 2008 from the merger of Centaur Grain and Grainfarmers.

‘Not best practice’

Carr’s said that its board “recognises that the appointment of Chris Holmes as chairman does not accord with the recommendations of the UK Corporate Governance Code.

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