In a statement, the owner of the Cuisine de France brand, said the development was effective today.

Urs Jordi, the recently elected new chairman of the company, is to take over as interim CEO pending the recruitment of a permanent replacement for Mr Toland.

Today’s development is the latest sign of a significant change in direction at the business, which posted a €1.09bn net loss in the year to last July.

The firm has struggled in recent years to turn around its troubled and loss-making North American operation.

In recent months the company has seen sweeping changes in the make-up of its board, including the departure of chairman Gary McCann and the arrival of Mr Jordi.

“Our immediate task is to deliver change and improvement across the business to regain the confidence of all our stakeholders,” said Mr Jordi.

“We will do this with speed and determination, pursuing ARYZTA’s mission to serve inspiration through a broad range of differentiated high quality bakery products.”

“Our business has strong development potential, and we have the resources and ability to win with a focused business model of core markets and businesses, a simplified organization, and empowered local teams.”

ARYZTA recently confirmed that it had received bid approaches for parts of its business and has stated that it is exploring all strategic options.

Urs Jordi has previously expressed his own view that now is the worst time to consider selling the entire business, something that the last board was recommended to do by investment bankers Rothschild.

Takeover talks with US hedge fund Elliot Management came to an end last month.

ARYZTA also said this evening that its board has appointed board member Luisa Delgado as Lead Independent Director.

Former C&C Group Group CFO Jonathan Solesbury will become ARYTZA’s interim chief financial officer following the previously announced departure of Frederic Pflanz.

“On behalf of the Board, I would like to express our gratitude to Kevin for his strong leadership over the past three years, with important progress made through many challenges,” said Luisa Delgado.

“We also welcome Jonathan as our interim CFO and together as a regrouped board of directors we look forward to supporting the chair and interim CEO in delivering the demanding programme at hand.”

Aryzta counts among its customers businesses likes of McDonalds, Lidl and Subway.