Upgrade Now

Company Announcements

Board Changes and Trading Update

Related Companies

RNS Number : 5874G
Sinclair (William) Holdings PLC
05 March 2015
 



WILLIAM SINCLAIR HOLDINGS PLC

 

("William Sinclair", the "Company" or the "Group")

 

Board Changes and Trading Update

 

 

William Sinclair announces the departure of its Chief Executive, appointment of a new Interim Chief Executive, the launch of a transformation programme, and a poor start to the season.

 

William Sinclair today announces the departure of Peter Rush as Chief Executive and the appointment of Stuart Burgin, 52, as Chief Executive, with immediate effect initially on an interim basis. Stuart is expected to join the Board of the Company in due course.

 

Peter has worked for the business for 2 years in challenging circumstances and has worked tirelessly to get Ellesmere Port up and running, and to refocus the Company's commercial offering for which the Board would like to register its thanks.

 

Stuart has a career predominantly in the food industry originally at RHM and Robert McBride and subsequently at Oscar Mayer. He has been the CEO and Managing Director of a number of businesses, and a constant theme in his career has been his strong leadership skills. He is a member of the Institute for Turnaround and has considerable experience in transformation programmes.

 

William Sinclair has had a difficult season so far. While some progress has been made in the ramp up of production, we are not as well developed as we had expected to be at this stage. We have also seen a slow start to the season with sales to retail and professional customers below last year. There has been margin pressure in both professional and retail sectors. Consequently the Board expects that the result for the year on an underlying basis will be materially worse than last year.

In the light of this the Board has launched a transformation programme that will be developed over the coming weeks but which has already identified and introduced certain action plans. Stuart who has been involved to date in the development of the transformation programme will now lead its further development and implementation, supported by additional experienced manufacturing and business transformation resource that has recently joined the business. Given the strengthening of the resource and the action plans already put in place we are committed to meeting the needs of our retail and professional customers through the peak selling season.

It is our intention to update shareholders on the transformation plan before the end of April. We anticipate that we will by then have a detailed plan to return William Sinclair to sustained profitability and that we will have begun to deliver against the plan.

 

Appointment of Non-Executive Director

 

The Company also announces today the appointment of Hugh Cawley, 58, to the Board as Non-Executive Director with immediate effect. Hugh, a Chartered Accountant and a member of the Institute for Turnaround, has specialised for some years in helping listed and private businesses improve their performance, including latterly Dawson Holdings plc and office2office plc.

 

The following information is disclosed pursuant to Schedule Two paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies. Hugh is currently the director of More Hours Limited and has also been the director of the following companies in the five years preceding this announcement:

 

Access Plus Holdings Limited

Dawson Media Direct Inc

Access Plus Limited

Dawson Media Direct Limited

Access Plus Marketing Logistics Limited

Dawson Media Direct NV

Access Plus Marketing Services Limited

Dawson Media Direct SAS

Access Plus Print Management Limited

Erasmus Antiquariaat en Boekhandel BB

Accord Office Supplies Limited

Erasmus Buchhandlung GmbH

Adversion Limited

Esp2office Limited

Alpha Data Supplies Limited

File-It Limited

Alpha Litho Limited

First2office Limited

Alpha Office Limited

GL2 Limited

Alpha Stationers Limited

Godfrey Lang Limited

Banner Business Services Limited

Houtschild Internacionale Boekhanel BV

Banner Business Supplies (Pensions) Limited

Image2office Limited

Banner Business Supplies Limited

office2office plc

Banner Document Services Limited

office2office (UK) Plc

Banner Managed Communication Limited

Olive 1 Limited

Banner Managed Solutions Limited

Phantom Media Limited

Colebrook Services Limited

Royal Academy Enterprises Limited

Dawson Books Limited

Software Stationery Holdings Limited

Dawson Espana Agencia de Ediciones

Software Stationery Specialists Limited

Dawson France SAS

Surridge Dawson Limited

Dawson Media Direct China Limited

TripleArc Limited

Dawson Media Direct GmbH

TripleArc UK Limited

Dawson Media Direct Iberica SL

Truline Logistics Limited

 

 

Hugh was a director of Surridge Dawson Limited which went into administration on 6 August 2009 following the Office of Fair Trading Opinion which saw competition in newspaper and magazine distribution reduce from three national players to two.

 

There are no further disclosures required in accordance with the AIM Rules.

 

 

For further information:

 

William Sinclair Holdings PLC                        Tel:  07802 625731

Rupert King, Chairman

 

 

WH Ireland Limited

Andrew Kitchingman                                         Tel:  0113 394 6600

Paul Shackleton                                   

Liam Gribben            


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
END
 
 
MSCJIMMTMBJMTIA

Top of Page