Pure Foods Tasmania (PFT) is realigning management and its board as it looks to reduce operating costs and offload underperforming businesses, with managing director, Michael Cooper, stepping down after four years.
PFT brands include Woodbridge Smokehouse, Tasmanian Pate, Daly Potato Co, Pure Tasmanian Seafood, The Cashew Creamery, and New Pastures.
In May, the company said its 3Q24 report should be viewed “through the prism of major restructuring” that was focused on “tight capital management, cost reduction, and product rationalisation” as well as a capital raise.
The board thanked Cooper for his “committed focus and tireless energy” and said the company needed “fresh eyes and a different approach to rebuild and reposition the Company and support its organic and non-organic growth strategy”.
Cooper was instrumental in listing PFT on the ASX, navigating the business through Covid, and managing the increasingly challenging economic environment with “unrelenting inflationary pressures”, the board said.
A formal offer has been made to a CEO candidate.
“The successful candidate has extensive experience in food manufacturing and service businesses and is excited to exploit the rapidly growing trend to ‘ready-made-meals’,” it said.