Zespri emblem

Peter Luxton has been retrenched from his role as general manager of strategy and business development for Zespri International.

Mr Luxton, who joined Zespri more than 22 years ago, left the New Zealand-based international kiwifruit marketer on 14 November following a review of the group's internal structure, according to Zespri's acting CEO Lain Jager.

'We recently reviewed our internal structure and we have 'disestablished' the strategy and business development function that was headed up by Peter. This function has been integrated it into other divisions of the group as part of a refocusing of our internal resources on core business,' he explained. 'Peter oversaw a number of functions. For instance, there was global optimisation, which will now be handled by our finance operations.'

Zespri will not appoint a replacement for Mr Luxton, he said.

'Very broadly speaking, we are under cost pressure, like many companies at the moment, and we're looking at resource allocation,' Mr Jager told Fruitnet.com. 'We decided to focus our resource on core functions, including grower relations, supply chain and 12-month supply, and this has required a reallocation of resource from some of the non-core functions.'

While confirming that Mr Luxton's departure represented a 'redundancy situation', Mr Jager said that he 'left the company on very good terms'. 'Peter and I had been in discussion about the restructure over the last several months and this change is the consequence of a genuine and well reasoned organisational restructure,' he explained.

Mr Luxton was not the sole casualty of the restructuring, with a further five or six staff, including some senior managers, also affected, Mr Jager noted.

'Peter is a tremendous executive who has been pivotally involved in the organisation over the past 20 years, and in the evolution of the business,' he added.

Mr Luxton's departure follows the abrupt resignation of Tony Nowell as CEO of Zespri earlier this year. But Mr Jager dismissed speculation that Mr Luxton had tied himself too closely to the former CEO and thereby paved the way for his own exit.

'I have been acting CEO of Zespri since 1 July, and whenever a new CEO takes over a company they will introduce changes,' he said. 'I agreed a programme of high-level change with the board. As we went through this process, we lost certain roles. I don't think it presents a realistic picture to suggest there is any link with Mr Nowell's departure.'

While the latest round of restructuring is complete, Mr Jager said Zespri would continue to review operations and make further changes, but that no restructuring is planned for the immediate future.

Speaking on his own future, Mr Jager told Fruitnet.com that he had applied for the position of Zespri CEO on a permanent basis, and that the outcome of the interview process is expected to be announced next week. 'The board have been interviewing for the role during the last week and an announcement is expected early next week,' he confirmed.

Mr Luxton joined Zespri more than 22 years ago and worked as regional manager and marketing manager for southern Europe in his earlier years with the company. He spent the past nine years on-shore in New Zealand, initially as general manager of marketing services, and more recently as general manager of strategy and business development.