Ann Iverson, an American , who had the reputation of turning companies around, joined Laura Ashley in 1995, and became one of the highest paid women in the UK. She had new ideas for the Company, and decided to change the clothing styles, which proved to be the wrong decision, as Laura Ashley customers did not like the changes, and started to look elsewhere.
The sales plummeted, and the Laura Ashley shares had lost more than three quarters of their value over a 12 month period. The Board made the decision that she had to leave, and she would receive a £450,000 pay off.
David Hoare took over in 1997, the life expectancy of the CEOs did not look good. John James was CEO from 1976 to 1990, Jim Maxmin from 1991 to 1993, A. Schouten 1993 to 1995, Ann Iverson from 1995 to 1997, and David Hoare 1997 to 1998.
Dr. Khoo, a Malaysian businessman, took the initiative and bought more shares in Laura Ashley, thus becoming the major shareholder.
Sir Bernard Ashley found it difficult to accept this, and due to a board room dispute, he left the meeting and went out and sold all his shares in Laura Ashley, together with the shares held in the family trust.
This became the end of an era. Everything that Laura and Sir Bernard had built up over the years had now gone out of their hands.
An extremely sad story, and an example of how owners of companies should never take their eye off the ball.
Sir Bernard was made aware of the internal investigation early on, but unfortunately could not believe and accept the content at that stage. He was a tax exile, and spent most of his time abroad. He seemed to trust the wrong people, and this was his downfall. Laura was very different, she was down to earth and was a good judge of character. Together they were a team, but without her he simply lost his way. When Dr. Khoo learnt of Operation Laura and had access to the files, he reacted immediately as he knew where the problems were. Had Sir Bernard done this, the situation could have been very different today. Before he died, he admitted that he should have listened a long time ago, and then said "But you didn't tell me properly"
22 авг 2024
