Woman to lead UK pub giant Greene King for the first time after longtime boss resigns
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A woman will lead Greene King for the first time in the pub group’s 227-year history after the company announced that incumbent chief executive Nick Mackenzie is to stand down.
Mr Mackenzie will leave the role at the end of February, having run Britain’s second-biggest pub chain for nearly eight years.
His successor, Clair Preston-Beer, is the company’s chief digital and commercial officer and takes the top job with a name that fits the trade.
Ms Preston-Beer joined Greene King in 2020 as managing director of pubs and has remained with the group since.
Previously, she was a senior executive at Whitbread, where she helped scale up the Costa Coffee brand in the UK and overseas ahead of its sale to The Coca-Cola Company in 2019.
She said the group had an “ambitious strategy in place that is focused on growing share in a challenging environment”, with technology being used to help improve processes across the chain.
“We have prioritised investment in data and AI to ensure that every pub is easier for our teams to run, every customer experience more personal and every decision better informed,” she said.
Mr Mackenzie said running Green King had been the “privilege” of his career.
“I am delighted that Clair will be taking the reins and having worked closely with her for the last six years, I know she shares my passion for the industry and is an exceptionally qualified successor to take Greene King forward and deliver the next chapter in its long and illustrious history,” he added.
He will remain on the board to help with the transition next year.
His time in charge has included the group’s takeover by Hong Kong conglomerate CK Assets in 2019.
Since then, he has been spearheading an overhaul of its pubs and brewery operations.
In March, the company said it was hiving off about 300 managed pubs into a new business division, with about half earmarked for sale.
In May, it struck a deal to sell Old Speckled Hen to the owner of Estrella Damm, amid a shift away from producing beer for sale in retailers and supermarkets.
The move will see it close its Westgate Brewery in Bury St Edmunds in the long term, although it is building a new site in the town.
Greene King employs around 38,000 workers and has about 2,500 pubs, restaurants and hotels.
