Bakkavor Regulatory News (BAKK)

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the UK version of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014, which forms part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (withdrawal) Act 2018 ("UK MAR").

29 September 2022

Bakkavor Group plc

Bakkavor announces Group CEO retirement and appointment of successor

Bakkavor Group plc today announces that Agust Gudmundsson, the Group's Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, has confirmed his intention to retire with effect from 31 October 2022.

Agust, who founded the business 36 years ago with his brother and Group Board member Lydur Gudmundsson, will remain a significant shareholder of the Company and become a Non-executive Director on the Group Board.

Following a thorough search of the market to identify a successor, the Board is pleased to appoint Mike Edwards, Bakkavor's current Chief Operating Officer, UK, as Agust's successor. Mike will start as Group Chief Executive Officer on 1 November 2022.

Mike joined Bakkavor in 2001 and was promoted into a series of challenging and demanding roles before becoming Chief Operating Officer, UK, in 2014. His leadership of the UK business has been exceptional and his insight and commercial experience has made an invaluable contribution to the Group Board, which he joined in December 2020.

Commenting on this announcement Simon Burke, Chairman said: "Chairmen normally thank an outgoing CEO with a couple of polite sentences, but in this case that will really not suffice. The founding and building of Bakkavor by Agust, along with his brother Lydur and their col-leagues, has all the hallmarks of a great entrepreneurial endeavour. It has created a first-class business with strong market positions and great opportunities, one of the global leaders in its sector. Vision, courage, steadfastness, loyalty and the highest standards of professionalism have all been key elements of Agust's leadership. I have been proud to work with him and am very glad that we will continue to benefit from his input as a member of our board.

"One of the characteristics of a successful leader is the quality of the team they build around them, and there is no better testament to this than the appointment of Mike as our new CEO. Mike has delivered operational excellence, strong customer relationships and consistent commercial performance in our UK business and I am greatly looking forward to working with him on the next stage of Bakkavor's development."

Agust Gudmundsson said: "After 36 years at the helm, I am incredibly proud of the Company we have built and the teams and people I have worked with during this time. The past few years have demonstrated the strength and resilience of Bakkavor and I am confident of the Group's success for the future. I am particularly pleased that Mike will be spearheading the Group's future direction. He has provided trusted counsel to me for over 15 years and has delivered both growth and stability in the most challenging of environments. I wish him all the very best success in this new role and opportunity."

Mike Edwards added: "Joining the business over 20 years ago as a manufacturing manager at one of our pizza factories, I never expected to have the honour of being appointed CEO of Bakkavor. Whilst this is a particularly challenging environment, I absolutely believe challenges create opportunities and we are incredibly well placed, as a Bakkavor team, to move forward positively and purposefully delivering for colleagues, customers and shareholders."

This announcement is made pursuant to LR 9.6.11 and LR 9.6.13. The Company confirms there is no further information to be disclosed under the requirements of LR 9.6.11 and LR 9.6.13 of the Listing Rules.

For the purposes of UK MAR, this announcement is made by Annabel Tagoe-Bannerman, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

ENDS

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About Bakkavor

We are the leading provider of fresh prepared food ("FPF") in the UK, and our presence in the US and China positions the Group well in these high-growth markets. We leverage our consumer insight and scale to provide innovative food that offers quality, choice, convenience, and freshness. Our c.19,000 colleagues operate from 46 sites across our three markets supplying a portfolio of over 3,200 products across meals, pizza & bread, salads and desserts to leading grocery retailers in the UK and US, and international food brands in China.

LEI number: 213800COL7AD54YU9949

Disclaimer - forward-looking statements

This statement, prepared by Bakkavor, may contain forward-looking statements about Bakkavor. These represent expectations for the Group's business, and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Group's control. The Group has based these forward‐looking statements on current expectations and projections about future events. These forward-looking statements may generally, but not always, be identified by the use of words such as 'will', 'aims', 'anticipates', 'continue', 'could', 'should', 'expects', 'is expected to', 'may', 'estimates', 'believes', 'intends', 'projects', 'targets', or the negative thereof, or similar expressions.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future and reflect the Group's current expectations and assumptions as to such future events and circumstances that may not prove accurate. A number of material factors could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. There may be risks and uncertainties that the Group is unable to predict at this time or that the Group currently does not expect to have a material adverse effect on its business. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this announcement. The Group expressly disclaims any obligation to publicly update or review these forward-looking statements other than as required by law.