Scottish businessman Euan Sutherland is no stranger to boardroom controversy, but as he prepares to take over the reigns at AG Barr he appears set to inherit an operation where the fizz is largely confined to the company's soft drinks.
Having trained in marketing with Coca-Cola, he worked his way up through management positions with various retail groups to become chief operating officer at Kingfisher before joining the Co-operative in April 2013 as chief executive.
His arrival came at a challenging time for the mutual group, whose banking operation was on the ropes and racking up heavy losses. His brief tenure ended just 10 months later following what many described as a clash of cultures, with Mr Sutherland branding the Manchester-based group "ungovernable" in his resignation.
READ MORE: AG Barr names Euan Sutherland as new chief executive
A few months later he took over as chief executive of Superdry, the fashion group co-founded in 2003 by Julian Dunkerton.
Mr Dunkerton left the business in 2018 amid fall-outs over the company's strategic direction, but in April of the following year narrowly won a shareholder vote to be reinstated to the board of directors. Mr Sutherland and three other members of the board resigned with immediate effect.
In December 2019 Mr Sutherland was appointed chief executive of Saga, the over-50s holiday and insurance company, just months before Covid sparked a global shutdown of the travel industry.
Though the company enjoyed a rebound in demand for its cruises following the end of pandemic restrictions, its insurance arm struggled with higher insurance claims due to rising inflation. Mr Sutherland tendered his resignation in November of last year, saying the time was right "for someone else to take Saga into the next phase of its development".
Commenting this morning on his appointment to take over from Roger White as the head of Irn-Bru maker AG Barr, Mr Sutherland noted the "unique heritage" of the Cumbernauld-headquartered company. He is no doubt also reassured by the operation's financial health, with latest annual profits set to rise by nearly 14% as Barr benefits from a series of acquisitions made in recent years.
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