Cake Box announces changes to board and management team
Cake Box Holdings, the specialist retailer of fresh cream cakes, has announced a series of changes to its board and executive management team.
After more than ten years at Cake Box, the company’s founder and chief financial officer Pardip Dass will be stepping down on 31 March to pursue other interests. He will be succeeded by David Forth, who will take on the chief financial officer role on an interim basis from two weeks earlier.
Forth has over twenty years’ experience in senior finance roles across the consumer, retail and logistics sectors. Most recently, he was interim finance director at AB Sugar and prior to that was deputy chief financial officer at Eddie Stobart Logistics from 2018 to 2020. His career also includes stints as interim transformation finance director at Wincanton and interim chief financial officer at Airwair Dr Martens.
Dass said: “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.”
In addition, Cake Box has appointed Richard Zivkovic as chief operating officer. He will join the business on 13 June from Island Poke, the ‘grab and go’ franchised food retailer, where he works in the same role. Prior to that, he was chief operations officer at Abokado and worked as regional operations director for London at Costa Coffee.
Following Zivkovic’s appointment, Jaswir Singh will move into the role of commercial director and will remain on the board in his new position.
In a further move, the company has recruited Chay Watkins as marketing director. Watkins previously worked at a brand strategy consultancy, where he developed brand and category strategies for large FMCG brands and multiple retailers. His CV also includes working with a number of national consumer food, beverage and nutrition brands, including Dairy Crest and Samworth Brothers.
Neil Sachdev, non-executive chairman of Cake Box, said: “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.”
Cake Box has also given an update on trading ahead of the end of its financial year to 31 March 2022. The company said trading has been strong throughout the second half of its financial year and that it expects the performance for the full year to be in line with expectations.
