Ad chief quits Weetabix over strategy

Weetabix marketing manager Colin Morley has left the company suddenly. Morley was in charge of Weetabix’s 13m plus advertising budget and reported to commercial director Les Comley.

It is understood that Morley spoke to a number of ad agencies about the Weetabix account over the past few months and expressed dissatisfaction about the strategic direction his company was taking.

Weetabix spends about 9.5m (Register-MEAL) through Lowe Howard-Spink, which handles Weetabix, Chex and Weetos, and about 3.5m via AMV.BBDO, which handles Alpen and Ready Brek.

Morley is understood to have been touting Weetaflakes around London agencies. It is handled by Arc in Ireland.

A Weetabix spokesman confirms Morley’s departure: “Colin has resigned from the company with immediate effect. Over the past few months, he has increasingly been at odds with various aspects of company strategy and has decided his long-term career interests would be best served outside the company, ” he says.

Morley was unavailable for comment.

Weetabix is second to Kellogg’s Cornflakes in the UK and ranked 31 in Nielsen’s top 100 food brands.

It is the only non-Kellogg cereal brand to make it into the list.