Rogers out, Paul in at Costa Coffee

FTSE 100 hospitality group Whitbread announced the departure of Christopher Rogers on Tuesday, as managing director of coffee shop chain Costa and executive director on the firm’s board.

The board confirmed he would be stepping down following their next meeting on 20 April.

It also revealed Dominic Paul had been appointed to succeed Rogers at Costa, taking up his new role on 6 June.

"Chris has made an immense contribution to Whitbread over the last 11 years. He joined Whitbread as finance director in 2005 and played a leading role in the transformation of the Group to a more focused and profitable business,” said Whitbread chairman Richard Baker.

“He then took the helm at Costa in 2012 and under his leadership Costa has grown rapidly from under 2,500 stores to over 3,200 today and is firmly established as the UK's favourite coffee shop chain.

“On behalf of all my Board colleagues, I should like to thank him for all he has done over the years and, more recently, for his support and typical professionalism in enabling a smooth succession planning process. We wish him every success in the future,” he added.

Rogers said he loved being part of Whitbread and Costa during a period of enormous value creation and growth, but after 11 years had decided it was the right time for change.

Paul is joining from Royal Caribbean International, where he had been senior vice president international since November 2013.

Prior to that, he was managing director and chief operating officer at bmi, having developed his earlier career in customer service and operational roles in the airline industry at British Airways, Go fly and easyJet.

"Costa is a fantastic business with a huge amount of further potential - both in the UK and overseas - and I am extremely excited to be working with the team to take the business to the next level,” Paul said on his appointment.