Toner and GM settle row over Aramark job
Gardner Merchant (GM) has dropped its High Court writ against Bill Toner, former managing director of its corporate division.
The contract caterer launched the writ to stop Toner from starting a job with rival contract caterer Aramark. It claimed that Toner, who has been on leave since giving a year's notice on 15 September 1999, had breached his employment contract by taking up the Aramark job in December (Caterer, 20 January, page 4).
Last week GM's chief executive David Ford admitted that there will be no court case. "Bill Toner and Gardner Merchant have reached a perfectly agreeable situation whereby GM's interests are protected and Bill Toner can get on with his life," he said.
Toner's former deputy, Nigel Forbes, has taken over the role of managing director of the corporate division as a joint position with Richard Muir, who previously had responsibility for Scotland and some individual contracts.
GM is formally adopting the Sodexho Alliance name, that of its French parent company, on the 21 February.