Rentokil Initial’s chief executive Alan Brown, who was parachuted in five years ago to turn around the pest control group’s struggling City Link, today said he is departing, just three months after selling the postal business he called a “problem child”.
Rentokil said it was 55-year-old Brown’s own decision to step down. He will depart in October, but will stay on until January to advise his replacement, Andy Ransom, a fellow former ICI executive who joined the ratcatcher in 2008.
Ransom, who is currently regional managing director, plus Brown and Rentokil’s chairman John McAdam, were brought in to Rentokil in 2008 and offered bonuses worth £90 million each based on the firm’s share price.
But they missed those targets as the struggling City Link parcels business dragged Rentokil shares back – endless turnarounds were promised, but after five years of losses, Rentokil sold the parcels business in April for a nominal sum of £1 to Jon Moulton’s private equity group, Better Capital.
Ransom, who is 50, spent decades at ICI, where he joined in 1987. His Rentokil promotion sees his basic salary rise from £450,000 a year to £700,000, with the opportunity to secure up to double that in a bonus, plus long-term shares worth as much as £1.4 million, a £175,000-a-year pension and £18,000 car allowance.
McAdam said Ransom was “a natural successor.”
