Pret A Manger owner JAB names new chief as Olivier Goudet steps down

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JAB Holding, the European investment group that owns Pret A Manger, Coty and Krispy Kreme, is replacing its longtime chief executive who spearheaded a transformation of its portfolio into a collection of some of the best-known consumer names.

Olivier Goudet, the former chief financial officer at Mars, is stepping down with immediate effect after nearly 12 years where he has been among the world’s most prolific dealmakers in coffee, food, beverage and petcare for JAB, which manages more than $50bn in capital.

Goudet, 59, will be replaced by Joachim Creus, a 47-year-old lawyer who has worked with the group since 2010 and who has already been designated as the successor to the group’s chair Peter Harf. Goudet will remain with JAB as a senior investment adviser and retain his substantial stakes, the firm told the Financial Times.

Harf, 77, is the German executive who has shepherded and expanded the wealth of Germany’s intensely private Reimann family — from its roots in a Mittelstand chemicals business — for more than four decades through a series of bold bets and remains the most powerful single figure in the group.

The changes amount to the most significant personnel shifts inside JAB, which was rocked in 2019 when the FT revealed that Harf and Goudet had fallen out with their third managing partner, Bart Becht, the veteran consumer industry operator, over the strategic direction of the group.

The succession, which will be announced later on Wednesday, shows how the firm has stabilised after a series of rocky years when it was shaken by other personnel upheavals.

These included the revelation that the family patriarch was a committed Nazi and antisemite, troubles with its portfolio companies during the Covid-19 pandemic and a lawsuit from Mars, which sued the firm in 2020 over claims that one of its former executives, now a JAB partner, had stolen thousands of documents that contained financial results and details of the company’s acquisition targets. JAB denied the claims.

Harf said: “Continuity of leadership is paramount at a firm like JAB . . . Over the past decade, not only has Joachim been instrumental to building an enduring investment firm, he has also become a member of the extended Reimann family.”

Goudet told the FT in an interview: “When I came to JAB, we were managing about $9bn and now that figure is more like $50bn. Twelve years is a long time to stay in a role like this and Joachim is now taking over at roughly the same age I was when I started.”

He added: “I am keeping all my money invested with the firm and I will continue to advise. I’m not going anywhere.”

As part of the shifts, Frank Engelen joins Creus and Harf as managing partners of JAB. Engelen, 52, is responsible for overseeing the group’s main investment priority, which is the pet insurance segment.

JAB is best understood as a holding company which manages two pools of capital. The first is one which is 90 per cent owned by the billionaire Reimann family, which consists of four siblings and their 10 children, and the remainder owned by the partners at the investment group.

The other is JAB Consumer Partners, which manages third-party capital and through which the group has raised five different funds. Its latest fund, $4.3bn, is almost exclusively invested in the pet insurance sector.

When Goudet took over as chief executive in 2012, JAB Consumer Partners did not exist and the family’s money was principally held in stakes in consumer group Reckitt Benckiser, fragrances business Coty and luxury assets such as Bally and Jimmy Choo.

Goudet left Mars to join JAB with a belief that coffee was the next big consumer asset where big returns could be made and had been the driving force behind a number of huge deals. Some of those deals are still the biggest investments at the group and include a $12.2bn stake in Keurig Dr Pepper and a €7bn stake in JDE Peet’s — but the performance of both assets continues to frustrate JAB executives.

His focus then shifted to food retail, which led to the acquisitions of Pret A Manger, US bakery fast-food chain Panera Bread and Krispy Kreme among others. Panera Bread recently announced that it would cut its headcount by 17 per cent as it prepares to list early next year.

Goudet then turned his attention to petcare, a sector in which rival Mars had a major presence, with the acquisition of two veterinary hospital chains.