27th Jun 2019 09:22
(Alliance News) - Car dealer Pendragon PLC on Thursday said recently appointed Chief Executive Mark Herbert will be leaving the company by "mutual agreement" from the end of June.
Shares in the company were down 3.9% at 17.00 pence each in morning trade.
Herbert became permanent boss of Pendragon on April 1, replacing 29-year company veteran Trevor Finn. He joined the company from Hong Kong-based retail group Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd, where he was chief executive officer for Singapore and Cambodia for three years from 2015 to 2018.
In his short stint at the company, Herbert launched a strategic review of the business following a profit warning in June. The company warned that it would post a small underlying loss for 2019 due to challenging market conditions and excess stock across the business.
The company in June guided the GBP11.9 million operating loss suffered by its Car Store business in 2018 to accelerate to around GBP25 million in 2019 due to "execution inefficiency" and an increase in used car stock at the end of 2018 to GBP485 million from GBP372 million a year before, leading to excess stock held across Pendragon's business.
Pendragon on Thursday said it has commenced a formal process to recruit and appoint a new chief executive officer and a further announcement will be made in due course. The company's Chief Operating Officer Martin Casha and Chief Financial Officer Mark Willis will lead the business on a day to day basis, until a new chief has been found
The company also said it will delay the release of the strategic update, originally scheduled for late September, until the appointment of a new chief executive officer
"The board remains fully committed to realising the long-term strategy. In the nearer term, despite challenging market conditions and the costly stock reduction programme, our focus will remain on taking steps to improve the performance of the business as outlined in our recent Financial and Operational Review," Chair Chris Chambers said.
Related Shares:
PDG.L