John Davies, owner of Herefordshire soft-fruit firm S&A Produce, has stepped down from the day-to-day running of the business due to "personal differences" between him and the company’s backers.

S&A PR and planning manager Rebecca Edmonds told freshinfo: “John will no longer have any role in the operational management of the business due to personal differences between him and the company’s backers, Lloyds Bank. He remains the sole owner of S&A.

“This has no bearing whatsoever on the financial viability of the company or any impact on the company’s finances. It is a personal decision by John. The whole approach of the company and its attitude to the planning process has changed over the last 18 months and there is now a very different senior management team in place, whom the company backers have total confidence in.

“In the past, S&A has been seen very much as a family company, but there has been a culture of change and changes to the management structure over the last 18 months. Now S&A is a multi-million pound business, no longer with the look and feel of how it was 10 years ago.

“It is business as usual. There are a lot of positives and internally we see this in a context of progression and as a positive move.”

Former chairman of two years John Sopher will be taking the role of chief executive.

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