Marketing overhaul sees David Ovens depart as CMO for Quick Service Restaurant Holdings
Fast food marketing veteran David Ovens has been made redundant from the role of chief marketing officer for Quick Service Restaurants Holdings (QSRH) which runs Oporto, Red Rooster and Chicken Treat, as part of a restructure of the marketing team function, Mumbrella understands.
Details of Ovens’ two years with QSR are sketchy, but it is understood he joined the company in early 2012, and was made redundant in mid-December.
The company has failed to respond to repeated requests for comment from Mumbrella, and Ovens’ own LinkedIn page not listing any details of his time with the QSRH which is owned by private equity group Archer Capital and brought in a new CEO in former Westpac executive Rob Coombe last August.
Under the changes the marketing managers for the brands have been given control of the function, with Jason Piggott in charge at Oporto, Anna Jones at Red Rooster and Tracey King at Chicken Treat.
Ovens, who is now listed as a “top strategist and chief marketing officer” on his LinkedIn profile, had previously enjoyed a four-year stint as chief marketing officer with US fast-food giant Taco Bell, which ended in 2011 when he decided to return to Australia for “personal reasons”.
Prior to that he was head of marketing for Yum Brands, which owns Pizza Hut and KFC in Australia, for six years and had also been senior vice president global for the kid’s franchise business for Johnson & Johnson.
Agency relationships for all the brands had been reviewed last year, with media passing from Carat to Bohemia in May, Publicis Mojo taking the Oporto creative from McCann in June, and Perth-based Shed landing the Chicken Treat account later in the year. Red Rooster is handled by 303Lowe.
QSRH has annual media billings of around $25m.
Alex Hayes
Second banker will be gone next…when will those idiots understand you need to know food and your customers not just money to grow a brand. Private Equity Groups kill businesses they know nothing about everyday. They buy the dog and then do all the barking until one day…dog is put down.
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Frank Romano started Chicken Treat in 1974, and still runs QSRH today. Pretty sure he knows food.
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