KEY POINTS:
Tony Nowell has startled the kiwifruit industry by stepping down as chief executive of Zespri International after only 15 months in the job.
Nowell, 54, the former managing director of Griffin's Foods in Auckland, will leave Zespri on June 30.
Lain Jager, general manager supply chain of Mt Maunganui-based marketing body, will step up as acting chief executive.
Zespri said Nowell wants to "focus more widely on the development of the broader New Zealand food industry, the country's growing international trade opportunities and personal community interests".
Nowell had launched "a war on costs" and was concentrating on streamlining the supply chain from the coolstore to the customer.
He made structural and staff changes at Zespri and was working on lifting the profile of kiwifruit in overseas markets - backed by his international marketing experience with multinationals L'Oreal and Sara Lee Corporation in Asia.
Nowell said yesterday he had made the structural changes and put in place the right people and strategies to achieve the results he was asked to achieve.
"I was approached and asked to come here as a change agent." He said the season was going exceptionally well and was expected to continue that way.
At this stage he had no intention to head another organisation.
With a passion for the food and beverage industry, Nowell said he intended to devote part of his time to his roles as New Zealand representative on the Apec Business Advisory Council and as chairman of the Asean New Zealand Combined Business Council.
Zespri chairman Craig Greenlees said Nowell had initiated important changes within the kiwifruit business.
Jager, who was asked this week to step up as acting CEO, has worked for Zespri for eight years.
He thought a certain amount of his selection for the role was from being "a bit long in the tooth". The timing was also midway through the kiwifruit season.
He said he would continue building on the relationships from grower to consumer - and predicted that growers, in 2008-09, would receive at least 65c a tray more than last year's average.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
