Nuplex Boss Leaves Message
Nuplex chief executive John Hirst had important plans as he checked out of his Sydney office at noon today after 43
years with the big industrial, The Headliner magazine reported today
But first he had a message for www.headliner.co.nz to relay to business leaders.
“Don’t (now go and) lose the gains, the very painful gains, that have been made over the past 15 months – that would be
my main message to people.”
Nuplex is one of the manufacturing survivors of the GFC. The latest guidance is for an EBITDA range of $125m to $135m,
which would be an all time profit high if achieved.
“Most companies that have come out of the GFC as survivors are better companies. They have shrunk back their resources,
they are leaner and meaner, they’ve improved efficiencies and their productivity.”
He says the survivors have also developed a new code of behaviour.
He urges company leaders to forgo the first class travel and the fancy restaurants.
“There’s always a significant amount of discretionary spend and you should ensure you keep control of that.
Keep a wary eye on higher raw material costs as these will increase working capital needs.
“Raw material costs have increased rapidly in recent times and are part of the management scene right now.
“(Nuplex) has a lot of experience in recovering raw material cost.”
“One of the issues that occurred during the GFC was that demand fell so quickly and made inventories look a bit silly,
though not so much at our end as we supply customers on a just-in-time basis.
“We’ve worked our own inventories as close to just-in-time as we can.
Hirst says don’t neglect the shareholders.
Nuplex has been very focused on giving its shareholders a decent dividend and they didn’t forget this in helping it to
survive the cashflow crisis of 2008-09.
Shareholders rallied to the recapitalisation, with “96% of the new shares taken up by existing shareholders.”
“We had to suspend the dividend for one term but I’m pretty hopeful that the dividends will be increased again in the
future.”
His comments on the present trading position and what he will be doing from tomorrow are on www.headliner.co.nz.
ENDS