CEO Ian Moir exits David Jones South African parent Woolworths
Ian Moir to step down as chief of the department store’s South African owner after years of underperformance and costly impairments.
Ian Moir, the chief executive of South Africa’s Woolworths Holdings who led the costly $2.1 billion takeover of upmarket department store David Jones in 2014, will step down in February following years of underperformance by the retailer that have seen it rack up more than $500 million in losses and book billions of dollars in impairments.
Woolworths Holdings announced to its local stock exchange in South Africa this afternoon that Mr Moir will be replaced by Roy Bagattini as group CEO of the multinational company, with effect from February 17.
The company said Mr Moir will step down from his position as Group CEO and executive director with effect from February 16 and that in order to facilitate a smooth transition, he will be working closely with Mr Bagattini and will also continue in his role as acting CEO of David Jones.
The departure of Mr Moir makes him the latest corporate casualty of the underperforming David Jones. When it was acquired by Woolworths Holdings six years ago, Mr Moir promised to inject the South African retailer with fresh sales and profits. Instead it has in the last few years been a millstone around the group’s neck as it struggles along with other retailers in the poor Australian retail environment.
Those awful trading conditions forced David Jones to book impairments of $4.4bn for the 2019 financial year. It came on top of a $712m writedown in 2018, which slimmed down the value on its books against its purchase price in 2014 of $2.1bn.
David Jones burned through a string of CEOs and senior executives, with Mr Moir recently taking the reins of acting CEO following the loss of its most recent boss as pressure grew from investors in South Africa for Mr Moir to also take the fall for the department store’s poor performance.
Reflecting recently in August on his effort to turn around David Jones, Mr Moir said the last two years were the worst of his working life.
Now that challenge will fall to his replacement, Mr Bagattini, 56, a South African, who is presently the American regional president for Levi Strauss & Company, one of the world’s largest brand-name apparel companies.
He has worked in international markets for over 19 years, following his South African based
career. Prior to his present role, from 2013 to 2016, Mr Bagattini was the President: Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa for Levi Strauss.
From 2009 to 2013, he held the role of President: Asia and Africa for the Carlsberg Group
based in Hong Kong and prior to that from 1991 to 2009 held various executive roles in
SABMiller plc internationally and in South Africa. In addition to leading numerous merger and
acquisition projects during the course of his career, he has also spearheaded the turnaround
of several companies and successfully driven their growth and expansion.
Woolworths Holdings chairman, Hubert Brody, said: “Roy has extensive operational, management and turnaround experience in global consumer and retail markets, which will prove invaluable as we continue to navigate the structural changes taking place in the retail sector and the challenges particular to our Group.”
Woolworths also thanked Mr Moir for his stewardship of the group for the last nine years.
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