Conival announced on 28 January 2005 that, following the passing of relevant resolutions at an EGM the previous day, it had completed the acquisition of Portfolio Products Limited (‘Portfolio’) and its enlarged share capital had been admitted to trading on AIM.

Conival’s AIM Admission Document dated 11 January 2005 stated that Portfolio intended in due course to appoint, inter alia, a chief executive responsible for developing and implementing Portfolio’s strategy, with emphasis on contacts with food retail buyers.  The Company is now pleased to announce that Jeremy Schwartz has been engaged as Chief Executive of the Company and has entered into a service contract with the Company effective from today.

Conival has agreed to a share option arrangement with Jeremy Schwartz whereby, subject to certain performance conditions, he will have an option over 7.5% of Conival’s enlarged issued share capital.  He has additionally agreed to an arrangement whereby he may call on certain of Conival’s major shareholders, subject to similar performance conditions, for in aggregate 2.5% of Conival’s enlarged issued share capital.  

Jeremy Schwartz, aged 42, is a Cambridge postgraduate. His career has been in FMCG marketing, including Marketing Director with L’Oreal and The Coca-Cola Company.  Since 2002 he has been Brand Marketing Director of Sainsbury’s PLC, responsible for developing and repositioning the Sainsbury’s brand. This included re-establishing Sainsbury's focus on quality across their own brands, becoming more competitive on price and repositioning their brand advertising and identity.

Conival now owns the rights to a number of celebrity names and brands in relation to certain food, beverages and nutritional products, including among others Marco Pierre White, Jean Christophe Novelli, Nancy Lam, Vineet Bhatia and Matt Roberts, together with use of the Blenheim and Blenheim Palace names.   Jeremy Schwartz will have primary responsibility for establishing and developing products branded with these and other names and for securing marketing deals for such products with major retail outlets.

Richard Thompson, Chairman of Conival, commented today: “The Board is very pleased to have secured the services of a Chief Executive of such high calibre.”

Jeremy Schwartz commented: "There is a real emerging opportunity to create contemporary brands that address the new customer demands around health, indulgence and convenience.  In the near term, we will seek to capture the creativity of our celebrity chefs and combine it with sourcing efficient manufacturing.  We are seeking to bring to customers across Britain good value for money, delicious foods and beverages".

For the purposes of paragraph (f) of schedule 2 of the AIM rules, Jeremy Schwartz’s full name is Jeremy James Leighton Schwartz, he is 42 years old.  No other disclosures are required under paragraph (f) in respect of Mr Schwartz.

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