Hunt for new M&B boss could take nine months

Adam Fowle, Mitchells & Butlers acting chief executive, said the process to find a successor to Tim Clarke could take up to nine months.

M&B announced Clarke's resignation today as it revealed first half pre-tax profits down 47.6 per cent at £44m on turnover up 2.9 per cent at £1,024m.

Fowle said M&B chairman Drummond Hall had already indicated he was the preferred internal candidate for the job, although he added the board wanted to "benchmark me against individuals outside the company".

"The process to find a successor will take between six and nine months," he added.

Clarke's departure - described by Fowle as "the honourable thing to do" - came as M&B closed out the second tranche of the hedge which accompanied the group's failed joint property venture of two years ago with then-major M&B shareholder Robert Tchenguiz.

Clarke had tendered his resignation at the time of the near-£300m losses arising from the collapse deal, but it was refused. Karim Naffah, M&B's then-finance chief, did resign.

"The closing out of this swap is the end of the saga," Fowle said. Clarke's departure had "drawn a line under the affair", he added.

The acting M&B boss said he would bring more than two decades of experience to the job, should he be appointed.

On trading during the first half Fowle said the second quarter had seen an improvement, but following significant cost pressures that full year-on-year margins would be lower than in 2008.

Fowle was positive about M&B's scope of value offers across the group's pubs and restaurants in both drinks and food, pointing to flat beer and cider sales across the estate - versus an eight per market fall - and food growth of six per cent.

More than 750 of M&B's near-1,900 pubs were now Cask Marque accredited, added Fowle, while the 44 restaurants the group acquired from Whitbread last year were 30 per cent of where they had been prior to M&B buying them