14 March 2022

Cake Box Holdings plc

("Cake Box" or the "Company" or the "Group") 

Board and Executive Management Changes and Trading Update

Cake Box, the specialist retailer of fresh cream cakes, today announces various Board and executive management changes, alongside a short trading update ahead of the end of its financial year to 31 March 2022. 

Board changes

After more than ten years at Cake Box, Pardip Dass, co-founder and CFO, will be stepping down from his role in order to pursue other interests. The Board has appointed David Forth as Interim Chief Financial Officer, with effect from 14 March 2022. Pardip will work alongside David to ensure an orderly handover before stepping down from the Board on 31 March 2022.

David brings over twenty years' experience in senior finance roles across the consumer, retail and logistics industries, including most recently as Interim Finance Director at AB Sugar (2020), Deputy CFO of Eddie Stobart Logistics (2018-2020), Interim Transformation Finance Director at Wincanton plc (2017-2018) and Interim CFO at Airwair Dr Martens (2015-2016).  He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1981 with KPMG Peat Marwick.

Appointment of Chief Operating Officer

In November 2021, Cake Box announced that the Board was seeking to further bolster its Executive team. Following an extensive search process, the Board has appointed Richard Zivkovic as Chief Operating Officer. Richard will be joining Cake Box on 13 June 2022.

Richard joins Cake Box from Island Poke, the 'grab and go' franchised food retailer, where he is Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Island Poke in 2019, Richard was Chief Operations Officer at Abokado (2015-2018) and Regional Operations Director - London at Costa Coffee (2014-2015).

Following Richard's appointment, Dr Jaswir Singh will move into the role of Commercial Director. Dr Singh will remain on the Board in his new role.

Appointment of Marketing Director

The Group has also recruited Chay Watkins to the role of Marketing Director. Chay joins Cake Box from a brand strategy consultancy, where he developed brand and category strategies for large FMCG brands and multiple retailers. He has previously worked for a number of national consumer food, beverage and nutrition brands, including Dairy Crest and Samworth Brothers.

Trading and business update

Trading has continued strongly throughout the second half of the financial year to date, and the Board expects performance for the full year to be in line with expectations.

As previously announced, the Board appointed BDO as internal auditor in August 2021 to assist in strengthening Cake Box's Internal Control framework. We continue to work through a plan of improvements based on the areas identified by the external auditors, the initial focus being on Inventory Management, with some changes already being progressed.

Neil Sachdev, Non-Executive Chairman of Cake Box, commented:

"I would like to personally thank Pardip for his immense contribution over the last decade and the significant role he has played in the Cake Box growth story, including the Group's IPO on AIM in 2018.

"We are delighted to welcome David, Richard and Chay to the Cake Box Family, and look forward to working with them as we continue to evolve, improve and further professionalise the business, bringing in the experience and capabilities to fulfil our growth ambitions and build on the strong trading in the second half to date."

Pardip Dass, commented:

"I am extremely proud of what we have achieved at Cake Box, from first beginning to franchise the business model, to listing the business on AIM. After a decade with the business, now is the right time to move on following an orderly handover to David. I remain passionate about Cake Box and a supportive shareholder, and wish my dedicated colleagues all the very best for the future."

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