New chief sought for Voyager

The man tasked with converting 850 former Bass pubs to Voyager Pub Group leases has left the company just six months into the two-year project.

John Denning (pictured)​, chief executive of Voyager, officially leaves the company at the end of next week, leaving Mike Kinski, a director of Nomura Principal Finance to take the reins on a temporary basis.

Greg Lowe, communications and marketing director for Voyager, stressed that the departure was mutually agreed and not based on business performance.

"On the contrary, the business has progressed exceptionally well over the last few months", he said. Further reasons for the departure were being kept confidential by Voyager. Mr Denning was on holiday at the time of going to press.

Voyager was formed out of 988 unbranded managed houses sold to Nomura Principal Finance Group by Bass in February for £625m.

Formerly managing director of Bass' pubs group, Mr Denning took the top position at Voyager and launched a two-year programme to convert about 850 of the pubs to lease. The rest are due to be sold separately.

Mr Lowe said: "We continue to have a strong management team and there will be no interruption or change to our strategy. We will shortly be in a position to announce that hundreds of pubs have been converted to lease and we will have leased a substantial part of the business before Christmas."

A new chief executive is due to be announced "in a matter of weeks rather than months".