Francis leaves the pork processing company after two years’ service following his appointment in September 2016.
Francis was responsible for Tulip’s restructure into four divisions – Tulip Agriculture, Tulip Fresh, Tulip Food Company (UK) and Dalehead Foods – and has completely rebuilt its senior team.
In a planned move following the completion of the first phase of the business transformation, Danish Crown’s CEO and chairman of Tulip Jais Valeur will take on the role of executive chairman of Tulip, working with the Tulip executive team in the day-to-day running of the business.
Valeur said Francis left Tulip in a far stronger state than when he arrived.
“I would like to personally thank him [Francis] on behalf of the Danish Crown board for his outstanding contribution,” said Valeur. We are now moving into the next, lengthier phase of Tulip’s turnaround programme, which is to rebuild the customer portfolio we lost over previous years and restore Tulip’s position as the UK industry leader.
“My role will be to work with the executive team within Tulip to ensure we continue on the journey we have embarked upon and leverage for our customers all the opportunities we have through closer co-operation within the wider Danish Crown group, in order to deliver world-class performance levels.”