4
George Weston
CEO, ABF
Last ranked: 4
It’s said that flour runs through the veins of the Weston family. If that’s the case, George Weston may need a blood tranfusion. ABP’s Allied Bakeries business is in the thick of the bloody price war currently raging among the supermarkets, and Weston’s sugar woes aren’t going away either, with continuing volatility over prices and the health lobby identifying sugar as its latest public enemy number one.
So why is Weston’s stock not falling? In the first place, one has to give credit to some of ABF’s more resilient food businesses. On the tea front, Jon Jenkins (qv) is doing a cracking job with its Twinings brand, growing sales and share in a declining market (cf Unilever). Patak’s and Blue Dragon are also ticking along nicely. And the recently acquired Dorset Cereals brand has bolstered its presence in the cereal aisles, where Jordans continues to perform well.
We also understand that Weston is in the market for further acquisitions in the food space. And what will fund these acquisitions? Why, Primark, of course. With 29% year-on-year profit growth, the affordable fashion chain now accounts for 55% of the group’s operating profits. And it’s for this reason primarily that Weston maintains his position of power on our list.
Primark is the Aldi/Lidl of fashion, and it’s even giving Sir Philip Green a bloody nose, while also plaguing Marks & Spencer’s Marc Bolland (qv), not to mention Asda’s George and Tesco’s F&F. So even if bread and sugar are dragging him down at the moment, Weston has plenty of alternatives keeping him buoyant.
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