New source of leadership for Highland Spring as CEO steps down

Bottled water firm Highland Spring Group has announced that its chief executive Les Montgomery is retiring from the role after nearly four decades with the Perthshire-based business.

Chief commercial officer Simon Oldham and chief operating officer Mark Steven will step up to be joint managing directors of the company with immediate effect.

Mr Montgomery will become a non-executive director of the company from the end of this year, having joined it in 1985, and promoted to the chief executive hotseat in 2007 after serving as finance director. The group – which is owned by the Al Tajir family and recently celebrated its 40th anniversary – says he has played a “pivotal” role in establishing it as a “leading natural source waters producer”, now the top brand in the UK market.

Mr Montgomery is credited with doubling the size of the business, including turnover, to £100m a few years ago. Picture: contributed.

He is credited with having spearheaded the acquisitions of Speyside Glenlivet and the water division of Greencore Group, and achieved his ambition to double the size of the business, including turnover, to £100 million, which was achieved a few years ago.

Over the last three years, he has also helped develop plans and establish an organisation to run the proposed Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland.

He said: “It has been a privilege to lead the company for the last 14 years... I look forward to continuing to make a positive contribution to the business as a non-executive director.”

Mr Oldham began his career at Procter & Gamble, later running Whyte & Mackay’s UK commercial team as MD. He joined Highland Spring Group in 2010, and will remain in charge of leading its sales, marketing, export, technical and supply chain teams to create consumer demand and drive growth domestically and overseas.

Mr Steven joined the company as group finance director in 2013, having previously been finance boss at Vion Food Group UK. He was appointed chief operating officer in November 2018 and will continue to have overall responsibility for the management and setting of strategic direction for the operations, procurement, finance, IT, legal and HR functions.

Mr Oldham and Mr Steven said: “We are delighted to be leading the business at this exciting time as we enter the next chapter in the story of this unique company. Our strategic approach will continue to focus on providing healthy hydration in an environmentally sustainable way.”

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