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Carr adds Cadbury to his line-up of chairs
Robert Lea20.02.08
Roger Carr proved himself a glutton for punishment today as it was revealed he is to become the busiest chairman among major British companies by taking the top job at chocolate maker Cadbury.
Carr is stepping up to chairman at Cadbury on the retirement of Sir John Sunderland, in a move that will see him in the chair of three top companies at the same time - and all three have their problems with the City and consumers.
Until a recent change of heart in the Higgs corporate governance clampdown on boardrooms, Carr would have been barred from taking such serious multiple chairmanships without an explanation or a very good reason. The Higgs Report said it doubted whether any businessman, however good, would be truly capable of devoting enough time to being chairman of more than one top company.
>Carr will now chair three. He is currently in the hot seat at Centrica, the British Gas group that later this week is sure to cause howls of consumer anger over record profits, and at pubs group Mitchells & Butlers, where there has been a property-refinancing fiasco. He is also on the court - or board - of the Bank of England, overseeing the job of Governor Mervyn King.
Carr is to become chairman of the Cadbury's side of the business when the confectionery arm demerges from its US beverages arm later this year. Deputy chairman at Cadbury Schweppes since 2003, he will move up during a time of heightened industrial tension as workers fight job cuts in the West Midlands.
Sunderland today said: "Roger Carr is a leading industrialist and combines excellent financial, capital-markets and operational credentials with a deep understanding of our brands and the consumer goods industry."
Cadbury Schweppes today reported a near-10% fall in pre-tax profits to £670 million. Underlying profitswere down 2% at £915 million.
Cadbury shares were the biggest FTSE 100 fallers, off 221/2p at 590p.
