Four of Makro’s five board directors, including MD Hannes Floto, left suddenly on Friday, and Makro Group has replaced them with external consultants, The Grocer can reveal.

MD Hannes Floto, financial director Stefan Hesse, operations director Patrick Legro and customer director Mark Copeland all left the wholesaler. Dominique Minnaert, COO for Metro Southern Europe & UK, immediately instated a new board comprising executives from business turnaround consultancy AlixPartners.

Alix began a review of the loss-making business three months ago. Metro’s UK wholesaler subsidiary has racked up losses in excess of £100m in the last four years.

The Alix executives appointed are: Klaus Raettig, who takes over the role of MD, Jens Koeppen becomes finance director, while Dan Murphy becomes director of assortment and stock management and Martin Schumacher is the new operations director.

The only board director still in place from this morning’s reshuffle is offer director Huw Edwards, who joined from Asda two months ago. Edwards will take on additional responsibilities as commercial director for offer, merchandising and marketing.

In a statement issued this afternoon, Makro said the departures were “due to differing views on the strategic direction of the company”. The directors had left on “amicable terms, based on mutual agreement” it said. A call to the Manchester HQ confirmed that the four ex-directors had already cleared their desks and left.

On the new appointments, Metro’s statement added: “AlixPartners already supports Makro UK in its restructuring activities, as an advisor, and the nominated managers are well integrated in the activities and understand the challenges the company faces. This will enable the new board members to act quickly and decisively.”

Makro currently runs 30 cash & carry stores across GB and is targeting a turnaround. “The new management team will ensure a fast and professional steering of this process,” the statement added.

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