Punch to shed four regional directors

Punch Taverns is to reduce the number of regions within its leased business from 12 to eight.

The move means that it will lose four regional operations director (ROD) roles from within the business, along with a number of sales and estates executive roles.

It is to enter a consultation period regarding redundancies, which the company said would be minimal. As part of the restructure, Kevin Georgel has been appointed to the role of operations director for its entire leased business, reporting into managing director Deborah Kemp.

All eight RODs, who will be responsible for about 800 pubs each, will report into Georgel. The move followed the successful operations re-jig, the company said.

Last year, Punch introduced operations managers (OM) - a separate management tier between area managers - known as business relationship managers (BRMs) - and its RODs, with each OM managing a number of area managers.

Punch corporate affairs director Nigel Turpin said: "After the introduction of operations managers, the ROD position has naturally evolved into a more strategic role and these changes reflect this. There will be no change to the number of BRMs or OMs we have in the business."​

Last year the company trimmed its leased arm, selling almost 900 pubs to Admiral Taverns.