Plumbing business Reece ‘set up to be depression-proof’
Future ‘uncertain’ as CFO Gavin Street appointed chief executive of the Australia and New Zealand business.
Reece Group managing director Peter Wilson says the future in the post-COVID-19 crisis world is “unknown” but the plumbing giant is as prepared as “any company in the country” to deal with the challenges.
Mr Wilson was speaking after the company restructured its management ranks on Monday to appoint CFO Gavin Street as the new chief executive of its Australia and New Zealand business.
“I think we are faring as well as any company in this country. We are in a great industry and we have adapted really well,” he said.
“The future is really uncertain and unknown. We really don’t know where it is going to go. So it is very hard to predict how long it is going to last, where it is going to end.
“Reece was alway set up to be depression-proof. My grandfather, whose values are entwined in the Reece way, he lived through the Great Depression and his guiding principle was to have a strong balance sheet, own most of the stores, have no debt so that you can ride through whatever the economy threw up.”
Mr Street is the first outsider to take a management role in the 100-year-old Reece business, which has been controlled by the Wilson family.
The family now owns 67.7 per cent of Reece after being slightly diluted from 73.3 per cent in the recent $600m capital raising.
Reece shares were trading on Tuesday closed at $8.26, above the $7.60 issue price for the raising.
Reece also announced that Andrew Cowlishaw would move into the role of group CFO after joining the company from big four accounting firm EY, where he led the mergers and acquisitions team in Melbourne for almost nine years.
Mr Wilson said the restructure of the ANZ operation was designed to mirror the management structure of its MORSCO business in America.
“America has had its own leadership team for the past 18 months. We will have two distinct regions with their separate strategies and over time as America matures with its capabilities, we will morph into more of a global brand,’’ he said.
“It is about getting on and executing to our priorities. I am still around in my role so this is a really natural extension. The new normal is dealing with all of the change that is being thrown at us.
“We are in for a period where the rate of change is really going to accelerate and Reece is in a position to deal with all that.
“All the changes that will come about because of the coronavirus, even the environmental changes, are going to be advantageous for Reece.”
Mr Wilson said the company had spent a lot of time in recent months thinking about the future and had created “a really bold vision for 2030”.
“It is really all around growth and digitising the business,’’ he said, noting the two key priorities were growing the US business and digitising Reece’s ANZ operations.
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