Liverpool savings, vouchers and corporate rewards business Appreciate Group unveils interim CEO as it looks to make a permanent appointment. Tony McDonough reports

Appreciate Group is appointing its chief commercial officer Julian Coghlan as interim chief executive.

Mr Coghlan takes over the helm of the Liverpool savings, vouchers and corporate rewards business following the departure of Ian O’Doherty in July. Joining Appreciate as group operations director in 2017, Mr Coghlan had held executive positions for 14 years.

Employing 250 people in Liverpool city centre, Appreciate focuses on Christmas savings, vouchers and pre-paid cards for retailers and corporate rewards. One of its best-known products is the Love2shop gift card. It is listed on the stock exchange.

As Interim chief executive, Mr Coghlan will be responsible for all the group’s day to day commercial, operational, IT and HR functions across the business (including sales and marketing).

He will have a focus on driving revenues in line with the group’s financial targets. Guy Parsons, as executive chairman, will retain direct responsibility for the group finance, legal and compliance teams as well as strategic and governance matters.

READ MORE: Appreciate announces £3.45m acquisition

The process to recruit long term appointees for the roles of both chief executive and chief financial officer is progressing. Appreciate says there is “an encouraging pool of high calibre candidates” being interviewed.

It has also announced that John Gittins and Sally Cabrini have agreed to continue as non-executive directors for two and three years respectively.

Mr Parson said: “I believe we have a strong team in place to manage the business day-to-day and deliver on our expectations for the year, whilst continuing to focus on the group’s medium-term strategy to drive sustainable growth.

“I am encouraged by the quality of candidates I have seen for the permanent roles and look forward to updating on those appointments in due course.”