My Food Bag founders stepping away from CEO role

The founders of My Food Bag are stepping down from running the company, with a search for a new chief executive under way.

Cecilia and James Robinson co-founded the home delivery service in 2012 and have been co-chief executives since.

They got early backing from former Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung, and identified popular celebrity chef Nadia Lim as the right person to help with recipe development and she and her husband Carlos Bagrie came on board as the other co-founders.

The Robinsons, who have two young children, are stepping down from the chief executive role in what they say is a natural succession plan.

“We’ve had absolute focus on our people and preparing the team for the next phase of growth. We’ve added experienced new members to our executive team,” Cecilia Robinson says.

The Robinsons – who also started Au Pair Link, which grew into one of the country’s largest early childhood education providers before it was sold in 2014 – will remain on the board, which has been chaired by Kevin Roberts since 2015.

Succession planning
Mr Roberts says the succession plan has been in place since last year and an announcement on the new chief executive appointment will be made shortly.

“As part of the succession plan the co-CEOs have provided a clear strategic pathway to transition to a new CEO, which now enables Cecilia and James to step fully into their desired governance roles.”

My Food Bag is New Zealand’s third biggest food retailer – it has delivered about 40 million meals – though it doesn’t operate a single walk-in store.

The most recent published revenue figure for the private company – which has signalled a possible share market listing in 2019 – was $135 million, in April last year.

Company office records show private equity firm Waterman Capital, which bought a stake in October 2016, holds 70% of the company. The Robinsons have a 10.8% stake, as does Ms Gattung, while Ms Lim and Mr Bagrie have a 5.4% shareholding.

Watch the full video on Cecilia Robinson's NBR Radar profile by pressing the play button