Reject Shop appoints company secretary Struggling discount retailer The Reject Shop has appointed Michael Freier as company secretary, effective immediately. Freier is a lawyer who has been general counsel of The Reject Shop since August 2016 and assistant company secretary since April 2018. Darren Briggs has resigned as company secretary but will remain chief financial officer. The company is still without a chief executive officer. CEO Ross Sudano resigned in May of this year, and genera
nd general manager of the supply chain, strategy and innovation Dani Aquilina was appointed acting CEO.
Chairman Bill Stevens will retire in October after the annual meeting.
For FY19, The Reject Shop booked a $1.5 million trading loss compared with a $16.6 million profit for the previous full financial year, as well as an after-tax $15.4 million writedown on assets and goodwill.
It has breached fixed-charge cover covenants in June and will do so again in September notwithstanding modest gearing and a net cash position of $6.8 million at June 30.
It has undergone a financial review by KPMG and is closing or selling off a number of underperforming stores.
Vicinity finds chief people officer
Vicinity Centres has announced the appointment of Tanya Southey as chief people and culture officer following an international search. She will begin with Vicinity in late October.
Southey joins Vicinity with more than 20 years’ executive experience across human resources and culture transformation, including as human resources director at Carlton United Breweries, group general manager, people, at Jetstar and vice-president, human resources, at GE Money.
She will report to CEO and managing director Grant Kelley and be part of Vicinity’s executive committee.
Southey has also had an extensive career in executive coaching. She lives in Melbourne with her family and will be based at Vicinity’s national office in Chadstone.
Vicinity is a real estate investment trust company specialising in ownership and management of Australian shopping centres, with approximately $6.9 billion of shopping centres under management.
As well as a number of regional centres, it owns premium malls like Chadstone in Melbourne and The Strand Arcade in Sydney. It reported a net profit after tax of $346.1 million for the year to June 30, a 72 per cent slump from the previous year’s $1.218 billion profit.
Cash Converters CFO resigns
Cash Converters International has announced that chief financial officer Martyn Jenkins has resigned, effective immediately. He joined the company in 2013 and during that time held a number of roles in the UK and Australia.
Katrina Grose will assume the CFO role on an interim basis while the company undertakes an internal and external search for a permanent appointee to the role.
Grose is a chartered accountant and a chartered secretary and has held the role of group financial controller for the company since 2015.
Cash Converters International is an Australian retail pawnbroking company which also provides payday loans. It has international franchise operations in many areas such as the US and Canada, the Middle East, Western Europe, Southeast Asia and New Zealand.