ASH.L Regulatory News (ASH)

23 Nov 2009 17:06



Ashley House plc (or "the Company")

Director Change

Ashley House plc the Primary Care Infrastructure specialist, announces today that following the recent acquisition of Sapphire Primary Care Developments ("SPCD") and Lloydspharmacy's resulting 10% shareholding in the Company, Andrew Willetts (46), Finance Director of Lloydspharmacy will join the Board of Ashley House plc as a non-executive director effective immediately 

Andrew Willetts graduated from Keble College, Oxford in 1985 with a degree in Modern History before going on to qualify as a chartered accountant with what is now PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1991. Since then he has held senior financial roles in a number of companies in the retail and wholesale sectors, including Waterstones Booksellers, and most recently as Director of Shared Services at Hagemeyer (now Rexel SA), prior to joining Lloydspharmacy in July 2003 as Head of Management Reporting.

Andrew was appointed to the position of Director of Financial Operations for Lloydsparmacy, effective 1st January 2005 before being appointed Finance Director Designate on 1st December 2006. Following a three month secondment to Celesio in Stuttgart he became Finance Director of Lloydspharmacy on 1st April 2007. He is also a trustee of the Group pension fund and had main board responsibility for Sapphire Primary Care Developments. 

Andrew's current directorships include the following trading companies

Including the companies set out above, Andrew is a director of 387 subsidiary companies of Admenta UK plc, the holding company of Lloydspharmacy. The majority of these companies are dormant. However, a full list of the companies of which Andrew is a director is available from Ashley House on request.

Tony Walters formerly Managing Director of SPCD will be an alternate director to Andrew Willetts. 

Tony (42) graduated with a BA (Hons) Degree in Accounting from Portsmouth Polytechnic (University of Portsmouth) in 1989 before qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1992 with Burnett Swayne, Tony has an Executive MBA from Warwick University which he completed in 2003.

Tony joined the Celesio Group in 1996 as Acquisitions Controller for Hills Pharmacy and was involved in the Due Diligence and integration of Lloyds Chemist Plc in 1997 before becoming Director of Acquisitions & Development for Lloydspharmacy in 1999. In 2000 Tony was part of the leadership team that set up what was to become Sapphire Primary Care Developments joining the board of SPCD when it became a separate company. In 2004 Tony merged Lloydspharmacy's Acquisitions & Development, Property, Shopfitting and Store planning Departments into one new Property & Development department with over 70 personnel, becoming Director of Property & Development before joining Celesio AG in 2005 based in Stuttgart as Director of European Pharmacy Expansion, with the responsibility of looking at market entry into 10 potential new European Countries. In 2006 Tony returned to the UK to become Managing Director of Sapphire Primary Care Developments Limited.

Tony has represented Sapphire as a Director on two Infracare and 2 GB Consortium Companies and currently has responsibility for Lloydspharmacy Acquisitions and Strategy.

The names of all companies and partnerships of which Tony has been a director or partner at any time in the previous five years are set out below:

Sapphire Primary Care Developments Ltd

SPCD (Balsall Common) Ltd

SPCD (Crawcrook) Ltd

SPCD (Silsden) Ltd

SPCD (Didcot) Ltd

SPCD (Davyhulme) Ltd

SPCD (Kincaidston) Ltd

SPCD (Midsomer Norton) Ltd

SPCD (Paisley) Ltd

SPCD (Rugeley) Ltd

SPCD (Sutton in Ashfield) Ltd

SPCD (Northwich) Ltd

SPCD (Shavington) Ltd

Infracare (Midlands) Ltd

Infracare (South West) Ltd

Infracare Dudley Ltd

Infracare Oxford Ltd

Infracare Bristol Ltd

Infracare (South) Ltd

GB Consortium 1 Ltd

GB Consortium 2 Ltd

CCP Fundco 1 Ltd

Coventry Care Partnership Ltd

Jonathan Holmes, Chief Executive of Ashley House plc, said:

 "We are delighted to welcome Andrew to our Board as we look to strengthen our team and develop a close working relationship with our new joint venture partners. Andrew and Tony both bring a wealth of experience particularly in the pharmacy area and we look forward to the future successes of both Ashley House and Lloydspharmacy"

There are no other matters which are required to be announced pursuant to paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 to the AIM Rules.