BaxterStorey's Mike Smith to step down from managing director role

Mike Smith, joint managing director of contract caterer BaxterStorey, is to step down from his role but is not leaving the company, Caterer has learnt.

Smith, who is one of four managing directors at BaxterStorey, is stepping back from his day-to-day management duties to concentrate on business interests outside contract catering.

He will however continue to look after his key clients at the firm and is retaining his shareholding and directorship at BaxterStorey's holding-company WSH Group.

BaxterStorey deputy chief executive William Baxter told Caterer that the company would be appointing an as yet unnamed regional managing director from within to cover London and the South-east to compensate.

Smith is one of 13 board directors lead by chief executive Alastair Storey at WSH Group.

WSH added Holroyd Howe Independent and café-to-restaurant group Benguo in December to BaxterStorey last year creating a business with a combined annual turnover of £178m.

Smith was managing director of Baxter & Platts when he left in 2001 and went on to co-found BaxterSmith with long-term colleague William Baxter. In 2004 BaxterSmith merged with Wilson Storey Halliday to create BaxterStorey.

Smith was named Food Service Caterer of the Year by Caterer in 2004.

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By Chris Druce

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