Greenalls chief quits in shake-up

Ric Cowan, marketing director of Greenalls Inns, is leaving after his post was axed in a restructure involving 100 redundancies.

Cowan is leaving in June after eight years with the company “to pursue other business interests”, according to Greenalls.

Until then, he has agreed to oversee the restructure with the newly appointed marketing chief Nader Haghighi, former managing director of the group’s specialist off-licence division, Greenalls Cellars (MW March 14).

Haghighi will be marketing and commercial director in the newly formed Pubs & Restaurants division. This is made up of 675 managed pubs from the old Green-alls Inns division and is part of Greenalls Hotel & Leisure, which consists of the Premier House group (175 branded pubs, restaurants and lodges with four main brands: Millers Kitchen, Henry’s Table, Henry’s Cafe Bar and Quincey’s).

Greenalls group chief executive Lord Daresbury says the merger “provides a more logical structure to drive forward our retail brands and concepts”. He has pledged to expand the new division with an 85m investment.

Cowan was previously a marketing director at Scottish & Newcastle and Matthew Brown. He worked at Greenalls when it ceased brewing and acquired the Devenish and Boddington Pub companies.

Greenalls Inns chairman Roger Young says: “During his term of office he made a major contribution to repositioning Greenalls as a key player in the pub retailing industry after we ceased brewing in 1991.”