UK's Domino's CFO to join pub chain Fuller, Smith & Turner

(Reuters) - Domino's Pizza Group's Chief Financial Officer Neil Smith will leave the company to join pubs and hotels chain Fuller, Smith & Turner as its finance director, the two companies said in separate statements on Friday.

Smith is expected to join by Dec. 1, 2021, the company said.

"While I was not looking to leave Domino's, I have been given an exceptional opportunity to return to an industry where I have spent much of my career," Smith said in a statement.

Smith departs less than a year after he was appointed as the permanent CFO in September, replacing David Bauernfeind who had died in a snorkelling accident.

The British pub operator has faced massive pandemic-led losses in the last year, and has had to cut jobs and sell some businesses, as social distancing measures and curfews until as recent as May shut down its businesses and hammered the hospitality sector.

In March, the London-listed company said it received a waiver from its lenders. During the lockdown, the company had a cash burn of between 4 million pounds ($5.67 million) and 5 million pounds, it reported earlier this year.

($1 = 0.7055 pounds)

(Reporting by Vishwadha Chander in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)