Barely a year into his role as CEO Stephen Pratt walks away from the Anitech top job. The sudden departure throws the reins to Pratt's management team and acting CEO Henrik Thorup, who vouches it is 'business as usual' for Anitech. Pratt's brief but turbulent stint saw job cuts and branch closures across the country, in a complete company operations overhaul. A successor has yet to be named.
According to Thorup, CEO of HGL, the publicly listed company holding 50% ownership of Anitech, Pratt’s resignation was amicable but came as a surprise, saying he was looking to pursue challenges in another industry.
- Henrik Thorup (CEO, HGL) takes up the Anitech reins from retired Stephen Pratt
“I worked very closely with Stephen during his time as CEO, and he did great job putting the transformation plan together. We worked one-on-one for a while laying out the road-map for reconfiguring the business model. The plan is on track, and we’re at the stage now where we’re investing in the sales team, service and technicians, and final stages of upgrading our IT infrastructure,” said Thorup.
Thorup confirms there will be no change in strategy or management and that he is pleased with Anitech's service business, noting that the overall transformation project has impacted sales, with slight growth in consumables. He highlights the company’s unique product portfolio and newly centralised administrative and logistics platform as key investments in a changing market, where profitability margins are under pressure.
The board has not begun the search for a permanent replacement for Pratt, with Thorup taking a hands-on role until a new appointment is made.
Pratt made deep cuts to Anitech’s regional structure in a massive overhaul of the company’s national operation. In the space of a few months Anitech shut down five branch offices across Queensland, Victoria and South Australia, leaving two distribution centres in Sydney and Western Australia. Pratt sliced the company into two business regions, outsourcing warehousing and logistics, and shedding workers across the industry.
According to Pratt, implementation of his strategy has lead to $1.8 million in cost savings for the business, offset by a reported $2.5 million invested into restructuring and infrastructure upgrades. In a recent report HGL declared a 63% year-on-year fall in earnings before interest and tax to just $1.1 million, a poor result it laid firmly at the feet of Anitech and point-of-sales specialist SPOS.
In a statement Peter Miller, HGL chairman, said, “Excluding discontinued product sales these two business units accounted for almost the entire decline in group sales.”
Thorup confirmed that while the business has made a loss in the last two financial years, it is projected to secure a small profit FY14 before a return to full profitability for FY15.