The former Woolworths CEO says Peter Hearl should quit the board, even if Corbett’s ally, Bill Wavish, is unsuccessful.
Former Woolworths boss Roger Corbett claims the chairman of Dan Murphy’s parent Endeavour Group should step aside, even if activist nominee Bill Wavish fails to get elected at a contested annual meeting next week.last week urged clients to vote against Mr Wavish’s election, after he was nominated with the backing of 15 per cent shareholder and pubs billionaire Bruce Mathieson.
Mr Corbett said chairman Peter Hearl is in “denial” telling shareholders the strategy is sound given the Endeavour share price has dropped 30 per cent since the business was spun-out of Woolworths. Endeavour owns Dan Murphy’s and BWS bottleshops, 54 pubs, and“This change is absolutely vital,” Mr Corbett said. “They need the skills of Bill Wavish. Bill is a very intuitive, clever, financial man who uses the figures, in my experience extremely well, to read the business.
Mr Corbett returned serve arguing Myer’s fortunes “greatly improved” while Mr Wavish was chairman, although he believes there is room for only one major department store in Australia and that is probably David Jones. As for failed Dick Smith, Mr Corbett said its problems arrived after Mr Wavish’s tenure.
“Bruce is the only guy on the board that knows about the business at all,” Mr Corbett said. “If the business has lost a third of its value, maybe the cause is that the business got some problems. So it’s like, fixing the symptoms without fixing the cause.