Blackford, Perthshire-based natural source water producer Highland Spring Group announced that Mark Steven, who alongside Simon Oldham, is currently joint managing director of the business, “has taken the decision to retire.”

Effective July 1, 2023, Simon Oldham has been appointed as sole managing director of the company.

Highland Spring — owned by the wealthy Al Tajir family — bottles over 400 million litres of water a year and employs over 470 staff across the UK.

“Mark and Simon have together successfully navigated the business through and beyond COVID, and other challenging market conditions in the last two years, and Mark will officially retire from his role at the end of June,” said Highland Spring Group.

“Simon Oldham has over 25 years of FMCG commercial experience having begun his career at Procter & Gamble and has held previous roles in Sales, Marketing and Commercial planning functions including at Whyte & Mackay where he ran the UK Commercial team as Managing Director.

“Simon joined Highland Spring Group in 2010, originally as Sales Director, and was appointed Joint Managing Director with Mark Steven in August 2021.”

Oldham said: “On behalf of Highland Spring Group, I would like to thank Mark for his dedication and the huge contribution he has made during his time with the business, working side-by-side with him has been a pleasure and a great learning experience.

“I am delighted to be leading the business and a team of fantastic people as we enter the next chapter in the story of this unique company.

“My focus will continue to be on accelerating our long-term strategy to deliver growth and value creation, underpinned by our purpose to provide healthy hydration in an environmentally sustainable way.”