Latin American restaurant group Las Iguanas has appointed Steve Hill as a non-executive director and CEO designate. Steve is expected to take over the role of CEO from Eren Ali in January 2014. Eren will remain in the business as Founder Director.
Eren commented:
“After 23 years at the helm of Las Iguanas, and with the business now in the strongest possible shape and setting historic performance records, I feel the time is right to step back from the day to day running of the operation. With the appointment of Steve, I’m confident that I’m putting Las Iguanas in to an excellent pair of hands. I’ll be working closely with Steve to support his integration in to the team over the coming months”
Chairman Ian Neill adds,
“I’m very pleased that Steve will be joining Las Iguanas at a key point in the company’s growth story. Steve and I worked together for many years at Wagamama and on a personal note I will be delighted to be working with him again.”
Steve Hill was previously CEO at Wagamama, where he oversaw the growth in the UK estate from 28 to 82 units and led the sale of the business by Lion Capital to Duke Street Capital, generating a shareholder return in excess of 3x investment.
Las Iguanas currently have 30 branches across the UK with a further 6 due to open this year including Wembley’s London Designer Outlet Village in October.
Las Iguanas were named one of The Sunday Times’ Best Companies to Work for 2013 and hold the Investors in People Gold Award. The company was listed as the Coolest Brand in both October 2012 and May 2013 in the Peach Brandtrack survey.