Stewart Darling, chief executive of beerflow monitoring company Vianet, has told M&C changes ot the board and the sale of the company’s fuel solutions arm allows it to “focus on the things we can be world class at”.
Announcing results for the six months to 30 September yesterday, the company said chairman James Dickson would step back to a non-executive chairman role from 1 January, while Booker chairman and Mitchells & Butlers board member Stewart Gilliland is also giving up his non-executive director role with Vianet.
Darling told M&C the changes, and the sale of the fuel solutions business for £3.5m to Wayne Fuelling Systems, meant a renewed focus for the group.
He said a key approach going forward was to work with tenanted pubcos on the fledgling managed and franchised offers.
He said: “We have been very vertically integrated in the past – doing things like our IT infrastructure. We have to recognise that we can’t be world class at everything and we need to pick the things we can be world class at.
“There are huge opportunities for us in areas like big data and digital marketing and that’s where the focus needs to be. Because of that we need to make sure the whole company, not just the board, is fit in term s of the talent and capabilities we have.”
On opportunities in the pub market, Darling said: “Our principle approach is that we are there to support our customers in any way we can in terms of the introduction of MRO and we have tried to be as flexible as possible.
“We are very positive about the investment-led models that some pubcos are embarking on and the opportunities those provide. Whether it’s EPOS, the linkage into iDraught, the demand for greater insight into the operating effectiveness of a pub, we have a great tool set to do all that.”
