He will officially step down at the end of July, the group’s financial year end, and will be succeeded as chief executive by the group’s chief digital officer, J Schwan, on 4 August.
Schwan founded strategic marketing business Solstice, which was acquired by St Ives for £50m in March 2015. He was chief executive of Solstice until 2016 and became St Ives chief digital officer in January this year.
Armitage joined St Ives in 2007 as chief financial officer, stepping up to chief executive in August 2014, after Pat Martell left the business to join Informa. According to St Ives’s announcement this morning, Armitage will become ‘special adviser’ to the group for 12 months after he steps down.
The news comes after St Ives completed its exit from the print sector – with the sales of its £106.3m turnover wide-format printing businesses in March, Clays to Italian firm Elcograf in May and St Ives Management Services (SIMS) to Paragon Group earlier this week. St Ives sold its web operations to Walstead Group in 2011.
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange this morning, Armitage said: “Phase one of St Ives’ transformation is now complete and a new, exciting chapter is about to begin. I’m honoured to have played a role in defining and creating an entirely new group and I’m delighted to be handing over the reins to J.
“I wish him and the group every success for the future, while I’d also like to thank my colleagues at St Ives for their hard work, dedication and support over the years.”
According to St Ives' most recent accounts, to 28 July 2017, Armitage had a basic salary of £478,200, but that could be enhanced up to £1.24m on achieving certain targets.
Chair Richard Stillwell described the outgoing chief executive as “the architect of the transformation of St Ives” who had steered the company “through a period of unparalleled change”.
Schwan said: “I am incredibly privileged to lead the next chapter of the group’s transformation and growth; a journey which Matt started over eight years ago."
“Matt has been a great mentor to me over the past three years, and I look forward to building on his vision. I am excited to continue serving the St Ives team and the leadership of our fantastic businesses as we work to become a global leader in digital business transformation services.”
Armitage has overseen a turbulent period in the business's history. During his four-year tenure the firm has shrunk from a multi-faceted business with sales of £330m to a group focussed purely on strategic marketing services with sales of £163m, during that same period its share price has halved from August 2014's 208p. Shares in St Ives were up 0.97% to 104p in trading this morning.
An informed source told PrintWeek: “I’m sure the news of Armitage’s departure won’t have surprised many – they have been looking to replace him for over a year now.
"The destruction of shareholder value under his ‘stewardship’ has been remarkable.”
St Ives was unavailable for additional comment at the time of writing.
