SCA loses Euro marketing chief

SCA Hygiene Products, the owner of Velvet and Bodyform brands, is seeking a European marketing director, following a recent company restructure and the resignation of Western European marketing director David Macfarlane.

Macfarlane left the company at the end of October, with no job to go to. He claims he was offered the newly-created role of European marketing director, which he has declined.

The company is understood to be restructuring into two different businesses across Europe – a tissue division for toilet roll products and “fluff” division for feminine hygiene brands. The European marketing director role would oversee both these divisions.

Sources claim the company restructure will lead to a greater centralisation of functions.

Macfarlane says: “The restructure does not provide any scope for a regional director, the position which I held. And so the new post of European marketing director was offered to me. But that would have involved relocating to SCA’s head office in Germany, so I refused because of family reasons”.

Macfarlane, who joined the company in 1985, was responsible for all SCA’s consumer brands and retailer brands across the UK and Benelux regions. He was also responsible for the successful European feminine protection brand, Libresse.

In August, SCA Hygiene Products extended its Velvet toilet tissue brand into facial tissues for the first time, putting it up against Kimberly-Clark’s Kleenex brand (MW August 3).