Thursday 18 May 2017

McGuire retakes the reins at Scorpio Worldwide


Management changes at the top for leading inflight distributor

Stuart McGuire, Chairman of Scorpio Worldwide, today announced that he would be taking a more hands on role in the company by becoming CEO with immediate effect. Aiming to drive through the company’s exciting future business plan and development, this decision comes with a number of other management changes.



Commenting on the change in role McGuire said: “I took on the role of Chairman some 5 years ago, after building a great business with our partners at Gebr Heinemann since 2007. The role helped me take a more of a helicopter view, enabling me to spend some long overdue time organising the personal side of my life. In the last 6 months, I have conducted a broad strategic review of Scorpio and the opportunities within the wider business. The result of this is an exciting new business plan, consolidating Scorpios position in the market, while also identifying further opportunities through diversification and potential acquisition.”

“I am delighted to be stepping back in to take a full hands on role in order to implement these plans.  Over the last couple of months I have already been more closely involved and it’s great to be back at the helm.”

With McGuire stepping into the CEO role, Ian Cowie, Managing Director, has decided to move on from the company to continue his career development.  Ian joined the company from TUI UK 7 years ago as Operations Director, becoming MD when McGuire took the Chairmanship. 

He has overseen the continued rapid business development Scorpio enjoyed with Gebr Heinemann (GH), followed by the transition of that business to GH, which he has now completed. 

Cowie comments, “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Scorpio, working with Stuart, Heinemann and the team, and delivering the business plan we had in place. Now that this is complete - slightly ahead of schedule - I am happy to be able to take some time off in the summer, and already have a couple of promising irons in the fire for Autumn.”

McGuire adds, “Ian has done an excellent job at Scorpio as Managing Director; he is thoroughly professional and very well respected throughout the company, Heinemann and the trade as a whole.  I thank him greatly for successfully completing his remit at Scorpio, and wish him very well for the future.  We are close friends as well as business colleagues, and I am sure we will be working together again, or at some time in the future.”

In a further development, Richard Kennedy, International Sales Director, will be retiring from his role at the end of the financial year.  Based in Dubai, Kennedy will hand over his accounts to existing Scorpio Sales Managers Chris Jennings and Nathalie Benham, depending on the territory.

Joining Scorpio full time 11 years ago as Sales Director, he has been an ever present force in the companys strong performance and success.  Chairman Stuart McGuire stated, “Richard is without a doubt the most loyal person I have ever had the privilege to work with.  His work rate is legendary, as is his reputation within the business both internally and externally, and I am extremely grateful to him for all his hard work and support over the years.  I totally understand his decision to retire from his full-time role, but we are already looking at some exciting opportunities to work together on a project basis.  Nathalie and Chris have also been working with Scorpio for many years, and its a great testament to the Scorpio values that they can take over seamlessly from Richard moving forward.”

Kennedy commented: ‘I feel so lucky to have worked many years in such a vibrant and diverse industry, through the years of pioneering spirit and rapid development of duty free.  I have met amazing people seen incredible places and take an enormous amount of satisfaction from my career at Scorpio.  Working with everyone at Scorpio has been an adventure and total pleasure, and I have honestly enjoyed every single minute and will leave in December with a tinge of sadness.  I want to thank Stuart especially and all my customers for their friendship and support in my role as International Sales Director.  I have not made full plans for the future, but anyone who knows me will acknowledge that I am not great at 'resting'!  Stuart and I are already looking at some project and consultancy work and I look forward to new opportunities and adventures the future brings." 

Lance Hayward, former Strategy and Integration Director at Alpha LSG, joins Scorpio with immediate effect as Non-Executive Director.  The well respected Senior Executive will guide and advise Scorpio in its diversification/acquisition plans, as well as look at systems integration and synergies within the business.  Hayward states, “I have known and respected Stuart and Scorpio for a long time, and am delighted to be given this exciting role.  We have already identified several opportunities which we will implement, putting Scorpio in a very commanding position moving forward.  Traditional business methods are so open for disruption right now, inflight particularly, and we are thinking out of the box to meet and beat these new challenges.  My experience of In-flight catering and the development of BOB and should prove very useful in this regard.”

Peter Irion from Scorpio major shareholder Gebr Heinemann comments, “Since our partnership agreement with Scorpio in 2007, we have developed a great business, securing all the goals that we set out together.  We are delighted that Stuart is once again taking the role of CEO, and we support him and the company 100% into the future to deliver the new business plan.  At GH, we view the inflight channel as an important one, and we have grown into a major product provider for the largest European airlines.  Stuart has a clear vision for the future, and we look forward to sharing in the next years of success.  We have a very close business and personal relationship with Stuart, and the family, and it is great that this will continue into the future.  Of course, we would also like to thank Ian and Richard for their fantastic efforts over the last few years, and wish them all the best for the future.”

Irion sits on the Scorpio board together with Kay Spanger and John Baumgartner. 

McGuire will be giving trade interviews in the next months to further divulge the plans for the business, as well as giving his overview on the developments and challenges he sees for the business as a whole.

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