Following a 17-year stint which began as commercial manager, Innocent Drinks has announced that John Taylor will be moving across to Coca-Cola as its GB franchise operations senior director.
Coca-Cola first partnered with Innocent in 2009 when it bought a 20% share in the business before taking full ownership in 2013.
Nicki Garland will assume the role of head of UK & Ireland following Taylor’s departure.
Garland has been part of the Innocent team for more than a decade. She started in the UK&I finance team, swiftly moving up to lead it, before taking on strategy and planning through some of the business’s most challenging times, including Covid. She later led the European commercial finance team.
Before joining innocent, Garland spent six years at Tesco, gaining a strong grounding in retail and commercial finance.
Commenting on her new role, Garland said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be stepping into the role of Head of UK&I at innocent. It’s a real privilege to lead such a brilliant brand with so much heart and ambition. I’m excited to build on our strong foundations and to continue to grow to bring innocent’s mission – to make it easier to live well through the delicious goodness of fruit and veg – to life.”
This news follows a continued shake-up in leadership, with the departure of Innocent Drinks’ COO last year, James Davenport, who has since been appointed as CFO at Neal’s Yard Remedies. The firm’s UK managing director Sam Akinluyi also left Innocent shortly thereafter.
This shuffle follows Innocent seeing its revenues decline by 3.5% (from £15.6 million to £426.2 million) in the 12 months ending 31 December 2022.
Whilst its latest Company House records showed that turnover increased between 2022 and 2023, its profit continues to fall. For the financial year ending 31 December 2023, it saw a decline of -24% (from £7,981 to £6,043) between 2022-2023. The company attributed this to an increase in cost of sales due to rising raw materials costs.
