The boardroom squabbling between Aryzta and its largest shareholders continues, with both sides at loggerheads over who should be appointed as the next chair of the bakery giant. Last week, Aryzta announced it would nominate Andreas Schmid, former CEO of chocolate giant Barry Callebaut, for the position of chair.

Aryzta described Schmid as one of Switzerland’s most distinguished business leaders, with many years of operational and strategic management experience at the head of leading international food, retail and service companies.

Aryzta added that it was open to supporting two board nominees from its dissident shareholders (Veraison and Cobas), but said the investors had refused to submit any of its candidates for evaluation through its nominations process. However, Veraison hit back this week, describing Aryzta’s comments about its board nominees as “misleading”. Aryzta will hold an EGM in mid-September to appoint new board members. As it is now formally nominating a candidate to replace Gary McGann, the likelihood of a takeover deal being agreed in advance looks slim.