Hornby wields knife at Restaurant Group amid battle to calm investors

The Restaurant Group boss has shaken up his senior team in a battle to assuage investor concerns over performance.

Andy Hornby is best known for bringing Halifax owner HBOS to the brink of collapse in 2008, but despite this disaster, he has held a number of high-profile corporate positions.

He’s been running TRG since 2019, just before the hospitality industry was devastated by Covid, and he’s under pressure to turn the business around.

Last month, he announced plans to close 23 restaurants, including Frankie and Benny’s and Chiquito, which were not as successful as pan-Asian brand Wagamama.

And yesterday he went further, reshuffling TRG’s board and announcing the departure of its chief financial officer.

CFO Kirk Davis will resign after the company’s interim results in September and will remain ‘at the disposal’ of the company until October 31.

Hornby said, “[Davis] played a key role in the acquisition and successful integration of Wagamama and in supporting the company in successfully navigating the Covid pandemic.”

Mark Chambers, who heads up TRG’s leisure and concessions business, will take over from Davis in September.

Chambers will help the company navigate the “next stage of evolution,” investors were told yesterday.

The company posted a loss of £86.8 million last year, its fourth annual loss in a row, and its shares are down 80 per cent since it bought Wagamama five years ago.

Analysts at Investec said yesterday that the changes suggest the company is committed to a survival plan presented to investors in March.

Other updates yesterday included Jonathan Knight replacing Davis as the head of Leisure and Concessions, while Jacqui McManus, the Leisure Arm’s People Director, takes on a dual role as the group’s HR director.