Mitchells & Butlers dealt bloody nose by shareholders at AGM

More than a quarter voted against the reappointment of its chairman on Tuesday.

Mitchells & Butlers owns brands including Toby Carvery and Harvester (Mitchells & Butlers/PA)

Shareholders handed Toby Carvery owner Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) a bloody nose as more than a quarter voted against the reappointment of its chairman.

Investors in the company, which also owns All Bar One and Harvester, voted in numbers against the reappointment of a number of other directors and rejected its pay plan for bosses.

At its annual general meeting on Tuesday morning, the company said it passed all its resolutions.

However, it witnessed a significant vote against the reappointment of non-executive chairman Bob Ivell despite the move ultimately being approved.

It confirmed that 27.7% of votes were made against keeping Mr Ivell, who has been on the company board for the past decade, in the role.

Almost a quarter of shareholders – 24.6% – also voted against the reappointment of non-executive director Josh Levy.

Mr Levy, the son of Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy was appointed to the board in 2015 at the age of 25.

A similar proportion of shareholders voted against Mr Levy’s reappointment at the past previous two AGMs.

More than 20% of shareholders also gave the thumbs down Eddie Irwin’s reappointment as another non-executive.

Meanwhile, 21.5% of shareholder votes were cast against the firm’s overall pay policy.

M&B added that it “notes the level of votes” against the remuneration report and resolutions regarding the reappointment of a number of directors.

It comes two weeks after the hospitality operator revealed that sales stalled over the key Christmas period as it was impacted by the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

Sales over the four weeks around Christmas dropped by 10.2% as it witnessed a rise in cancellations.