Grand Met loses IT boss

Grand Metropolitan's group IS director Bill Brant has left the company following an internal restructure, writes Robert Juman Blincoe.

The food and drinks giant is concentrating on a global network to take it closer to its customers and flatten its structure. It is preparing to outsource the management of this system in the UK.

The company is not replacing Brant. Business services director Gordon Channon will take over some of his duties.

Brant said: 'I'd been there 17 years and it was time to move. My job doesn't exist any more and nor do any of the other central jobs.'

He said the situation had not been affected by the prospective merger with Guinness and that the drinks side of Grand Met would handle the task of blending the two businesses' IT systems.

Grand Met has already outsourced its network management in the US.

The global network is run on an IBM mainframe in Minnesota and another in Uxbridge.