Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

Bevon Francis, after three years, has given up the chair of Salada Foods Jamaica Limited to pursue other interests.

The resignation takes effect on December 31, 2007.

His departure, which comes at the end of the financial year, but ahead of the next annual general meeting, was not entirely unexpected.

Francis told Wednesday Business he had made a personal decision to depart the coffee company to allow the new majority owner, the Donovan Lewis-controlled Three Bears, free reign to restructure.

"My resignation is a matter of principle to give the new owner whatever room he might need," Francis told Wednesday Business.

"I recently did the proper thing."

Lewis, who is also owner of the Ideal Group of companies, said Tuesday, he was yet to identify a replacement for Francis, but said given his own schedule, he would not be taking on the role.

"I won't sit there," he said.

Francis said early this year, when the ownership of the company changed hands, placing Salada in Lewis' control, he had intimated to the board that when the transition was complete, he would resign his seat.

But then Lewis requested that he stay on.

Lewis owns a little over 60 per cent of Salada, having acquired 2,018,981 shares from Caribbean Investment Funds last year, adding to his holdings of 2.05 million shares.

Actions

Francis, a former executive director of the defunct West Indies Glass Company, with an engineering background and an EMBA specialising in finance, said his actions were consistent with past behaviour.

Citing his experience at Desnoes and Geddes, where he was a director at the time that Guinness bought majority stake in the company, he said he resigned then, too.

"It's my view that a new owner may want to have his own idea of how the business is to be run and it's proper to give a new owner the chance to run with his own idea and figure out how he is going to run the company," he told Wednesday Business.

"Salada is a strong company and has the potential to do well and continue to grow," he said.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com