Northern Foods today suffered a fresh blow as its finance director, Jez Maiden, announced plans to leave for National Express a month after the failure of new contract talks with Marks & Spencer (M&S) led the ready meal maker to cut 730 jobs.

Mr Maiden's appointment as National Express's new finance director is his third job in six years. He left his position as group finance director Hickson International, the German-Dutch gilding group, in 2002 for British Vita, the foam making business.

After British Vita's takeover by TPG, the US private equity firm, Mr Maiden became group finance director at Northern Foods in 2005. He will join National Express on November 14.

Anthony Hobson, chairman at Northern Foods, said: "[Mr Maiden] has provided the board of Northern Foods and the business with excellent financial leadership and will be leaving the group in a strong financial position and with a clear and successful strategy."

Last month, Northern Foods said that it had no choice but to shut down operations at its its 21-year-old Fenland factory, in Grantham, Lincolnshire, after failing to agree the terms of a new supply contract with M&S, saying it would have been unable to make a profit under the deal.

About 730 staff, who make half a million Italian ready meals for M&S each week, face redundancy in August.

The decision led to angry scenes as more than 100 axed staff protested outside M&S's flagship store in Marble Arch, highlighting the increasingly fractious relationship between suppliers and supermarkets over pricing.

The company had been boosted by announcing a 25 per cent increase in full-year pre-tax profits last month, to over £50m, despite the soaring cost of some ingredients and energy used at its factories, before the factory closure was announced.

National Express, Britain's biggest long-distance coach operator worth around £1.4 billion, announces it’s half-year results next month. In its latest full-year results in 2007, it announced that pre-tax profits had increased by 44.0 per cent to £149.9m.

Richard Bowker, chief executive at National Express, said: 'I believe [Mr Maiden’s] diverse background, and his recent experience at Northern Foods where he has contributed to a significant process of change and underlying profitability improvement, will make him a valuable member of the team responsible for taking the group forward to the next stage of its growth.”

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