Electrocomponents appoints new group finance director

Electrocomponents has appointed a new group finance director in the last week, shortly after it announced the expected fall in pretax profits and warned that UK manufacturing was still a tough market.

The incumbent group finance director and deputy chairman, Jeff Hewitt, announced in March his plans to seek early retirement to extend his range of non-executive directorships. He will make way for Simon Boddie, who joins as finance director designate on 1 July and assumes the full role on 1 September.

Boddie joins the company from drinks giant Diageo, where he was finance director of key markets. He begins his role in what many commentators say will be a difficult year for the company.

An Electrocomponents statement from last week says: “Leading indicators suggest a difficult trading environment in most of our markets and so we remain cautious on the outlook for the coming year."

In recent months, shares in the company dipped by 12% to a two-year low as the company was apparently unable to reassure investors that its dividend was safe (see Extra 93).