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Wilkinson Sword is this year's Top International Turnaround; Northern Rock's Ron Sandler honoured

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 07/09/2010 - 14:48

John Sergeant presented at the Institute for Turnaround’s Strictly Turnaround Awards 2009 on December 3rd. It is the eighth year of the IFT Awards and some 60 submissions in 10 categories reached the final judging. The independent judging panel includes Professor Michael Jacobides, London Business School and Jane Calvert-Lee, representing the CBI, together with turnaround experts.
WILKINSON SWORD GERMANY
Robin Vauth, Managing Director, Wilkinson Sword Germany accepted the IFT International Turnaround 2009 Awards. Sea Containers (Laura Barlow, AlixPartners) received a judges’ commendation in the same category. The reasons for Wilkinson Sword’s success:

  • Wilkinson Sword Germany had declined in sales, profit and market share over several years
  • It was sandwiched between a dominant market leader and growing Private Label competition
  • The new leadership team gave it strategic direction and reorganised the business
  • They invested reduced costs into the brand through advertising, promotion and excellence in sales execution with Hawaiian Tropic, Energiser and Wilkinson Sword - some of the powerful brands in the portfolio
  • The team, both existing and new members rose to the growth challenge
  • The results are a turnaround in sales, profit and share trends and, just as importantly:
  • The re-emergence of Wilkinson Sword as a serious challenger in the German personal care market

Institute for Turnaround Chief Executive Christine Elliott said, “This is a classic turnaround in which the management team overcame huge operational challenges and rehabilitated a leading international brand.”
 
The IFT Chairman’s Special Award for Turnaround 2009 and an IFT Honorary Fellowship was accepted by Ron Sandler. Paul Thompson, IFT Chairman, described Ron Sandler as,
“a man often parachuted in to tackle crises... of a spectacular scale and challenge.

  • He was instrumentalin securing the change that saved the Lloyd’s of London insurance market from collapse;
  • He was chief executive from 1995 - 1999
  • A welter of asbestos and pollution-related claims and exposure to natural catastrophe risk had threatened Lloyd’s with extinction
  • In the year before his departure, Lloyd’s reported record profits of £1.15 billion
  • Then he was called in to NatWest when it was facing two unprecedented hostile bids
  • In 2001, the government appointed him to oversee a review of the long-term savings industry
  • His report criticised the financial services industry for complicated products that had high charges and relatively poor returns
  • At Northern Rock, Ron Sandler, “rolled up his sleeves and got on with the job”
  • It was a job in the full glare of the media and fraught with national politics.
  • Initially Executive Chairman, he later appointed a CEO and became Non-Executive Chairman
  • Most recently, in September, Ron Sandler has taken on the executive chairmanship of insurance group Pearl, where he is once again overseeing the rehabilitation of a major organisation at a pivotal time”
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