A group of Nisa members have welcomed chairman Christopher Baker’s announcement that he is stepping down, which came two days after they called for members to vote against his re-election at this month’s agm.
The Mutual Shopkeepers group, an anonymous coalition of 84 Nisa members, sent an email titled ‘Worried for our future?’ on 31 August to the membership.
In the email, it blamed Baker for overseeing Nisa’s worst-ever financial performance, after it recorded the first loss in its history in 2015, and failing to reassure members over rumours that he and the senior executive team were planning a sale of Nisa to rival wholesaler Bestway.
A Mutual Shopkeepers spokesman said he felt its opposition had influenced Baker’s decision to step down. “Why after announcing he was standing for another term, did Mr Baker suddenly resign last week?” he asked. “Even we were shocked by that.”
Baker did not respond to The Grocer’s attempts to contact him, but in his official statement on 2 September he said: “I have greatly enjoyed my time at Nisa, but believe the company and its members now need a new chairman with a fresh mandate from the shareholders to take the business forward, alongside the new executive management team.”
Mutual Shopkeepers welcomed the appointment of independent non-executive director Peter Hartley as interim non-executive chairman designate.
“Generally the members support Peter Hartley as chairman, especially as he has demonstrated knowledge of retail, regularly visits member stores, listens and clearly understands the needs of the independent retailer,” said the spokesman.
Since recording a loss of £3m in 2015, the buying group has returned to profit, with an EBITDA of £7.3m in the year to April 2016. A 2015 independent member survey by Javelin found that 62% of the surveyed membership cited their relationship with Nisa as strong or good.
A Nisa spokesman said the rumours regarding Bestway were “completely untrue”.
Nisa will announce the process for the appointment of a permanent new chairman at the agm on 29 September.
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