The newly appointed managing director of South African fresh produce marketer Capespan Exports has told Eurofruit he will carry out the role for six months so that the company has time to identify a longer-term successor to Abrie de Swart, who departed the company after just nine months at the helm.
Since stepping down as managing director of Capespan's UK import operation last August, Lennon has continued to provide the group with his expertise as a consultant, but Swart's departure left Capespan Exports, the South African export division of the Capespan Group, with a major vacancy to fill.
'I have been consulting for Capespan on a regular basis over the past months and have been working with `Capespan Fruit CEO` Louis Kriel on projects in South Africa throughout the year,' Lennon told Eurofruit.
'It was not a difficult decision to accept the invitation to spend the next six months in South Africa to allow Capespan time to find a successor for Mr De Swardt.'
Just a few days after former Tesco executive Richard Brasher was named as the new CEO of at Pick n Pay, a South African retailer known to be in need of a turnaround, Lennon answered Kriel's distress call and boarded a plane from London to Cape Town, where he will carry out his own bit of rescue work at a major South African business.
Unlike Brasher, who has to pull Pick n Pay out of a slump that recently resulted in a profit warning, Lennon arguably has a much easier task.
With years of experience working for Capespan and its former incarnation Unifruco, he knows South Africa and the country's producers well and is expected to inspire a good deal of confidence among suppliers.
During the 1990s, Lennon enjoyed an extended stay in South Africa as part of Unifruco’s European team.
Capespan Group CEO Johan Dique is just one of several major industry figures due to speak at this year's Eurofruit Congress Southern Hemisphere, which takes place in Cape Town on 17-19 October. More details atwww.eurofruitcongress.com/sh
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