Primark’s third-largest shop sits on the other side of Oxford Street to Marks & Spencer’s (MKS) flagship Marble Arch store. In a metaphorical sort of way, it would have been a short walk for Eoin Tonge when he left M&S in January this year. Just a few weeks later, on 3 March, he started as the finance director at Primark owner Associated British Foods (ABF).
His move provides a case study of executive recruitment. ABF started searching for a new finance director in 2022 to replace John Bason, who’d been in the role for 23 years. This was not the best of timing, for many other companies were also looking for new finance heads. According to Chris Gaunt at headhunter Spencer Stuart, quoted on Bloomberg, the increased demand had come from companies concerned about having technical “easy top-line growth” people in the key financial roles with no experience of inflation, higher interest rates or of how to cope with a recession.
Their directors saw that the need was to focus more on cash, liquidity and financing, especially when restructuring was being planned, and “rise-to-the-challenge” candidates capable of navigating their companies through a crisis were proving hard to find. The role of finance director had become “the hottest in the job market” and arguably also the hottest seat in the boardroom.