Shareholder activist swims against Woolies tide
November 20, 2009
By Florence de Vries
A boardroom activist, known only as A Gilmore, branded the Woolworths group "racialistic" yesterday as she swam against the tide to establish the bona fides of two new black directors brought into the group in a succession move.
In the spirit of shareholder activist Theo Botha, Gilmore wanted the two new black female directors to sing for their supper before the quorum of shareholders, but Woolworths chairman Buddy Hawton appeared nonplussed.
Gilmore is well known for her pressing questions to company directors, and yesterday's annual general meeting was no exception. Efforts to contact Gilmore drew a blank, and Woolworths would not divulge her details, including her first name. Yesterday's probe involved Hawton's refusal to allow two recently elected non-executive directors - Lindiwe Bakoro and Thina Siwendu - to tell shareholders what value they might add to the company.
Bakoro and Siwendu were appointed as directors to the board on August 26. Bakoro is a chartered accountant while Siwendu holds a BSocSc (Honours) and LLB degree.
Hawton said the appointments would bring additional skills to the board and its committees, and add to the spread of age, gender and diversity.
He explained that the two directors would become members of Woolworths' audit and risk committees where they would evaluate the company's risk. "The majority of our risk lies within our business and not anywhere else," he added.
Baroko and Siwendu replace outgoing directors Nigel Colne and Brian Frost, who have indicated their intention to retire at the end of the financial year.
Hawton said the group was investing in "black non-executive directors" as part of its black economic empowerment strategy, which Gilmore labelled "racialistic". She insisted that Hawton did not think them capable of speaking for themselves. Hawton grew angry and said it was unusual for new directors to present themselves to shareholders.
In the end, the two new directors did not speak.
The group gave a trading update for the 20 weeks to November 15. Hawton said group sales had increased 8.1 percent, with growth of 3.8 percent in comparable stores.This came on the back of a 7.9 percent increase in trading space for the group's clothing division, while food had increased by 8.9 percent. Country Road Australia had increased 12.7 percent in Australian dollar terms, while the local Country Road brand increased sales by 6.1 percent.
"The increase in the price movement of clothing and general merchandise has been driven by the higher exchange rates at the time the current summer season procured."
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