Corbett makes surprise Woolworths AGM appearance, critiques chairman
Former Woolworths chief executive Roger Corbett made a surprise appearance at the supermarket giant’s annual meeting, criticising the retailer’s chairman Scott Perkins for supporting “the status quo” at Endeavour Group, where Woolworths is a major shareholder.
Woolworths received a first strike against its remuneration report at Thursday’s meeting, partly due to investors taking issue with rewarding executives following the deaths of two staff members in the past 12 months.
On Wednesday, Woolworths said it would vote in line with the Endeavour board’s recommendations against the election of board nominee Bill Wavish, another former supermarkets executive, who is supported by Mr Corbett and the pub and liquor retailer’s largest shareholder, Bruce Mathieson.
Woolworths new chairman Scott Perkins told Roger Corbett he expects better performance from Endeavour Group, where the retailer controls a 9.1 per cent stake. Dominic Lorrimer
Woolworths is the second-biggest shareholder in Endeavour behind Mr Mathieson, who controls 15 per cent of Endeavour and is waging a proxy fight looking to push out chairman Peter Hearl.
Mr Perkins told the meeting the contractual arrangements with Endeavour were important to the company, adding that he supported the current board, including Bruce Mathieson jnr, Mr Mathieson’s son.
Mr Corbett praised Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci, saying he had done “a superb job”. He said he had a practice of “never critiquing his successors”, but had terse words for Mr Perkins.
Mr Corbett said the board recommended the divestment of the Endeavour assets on the basis it would be a much better way to manage the specialist stores and pubs, but Endeavour’s shares have dropped 40 per cent since then. “That is by any measure a serious and significant drop. We’ve heard Bruce Mathieson, the expert in pubs, say the pubs are not being well managed. I think we might assume that he might be Australia’s expert in that,” Mr Corbet said.
“The bottle shops or the retail outlets have completely lost their mojo.
“Your board has chosen to support the status quo. I think your shareholders are entitled to know the reason you chose that,” he told Mr Perkins. “How much worse does it need to get than a 40 per cent reduction in the share price for Woolworths to use its 9 per cent to protect its own investment?”
Mr Perkins replied: “It does not give us any pleasure at all, to see the public matters that have spilled out into the media in respect of Endeavour Group.
“Our view going forward is that we sincerely hope that the board of Endeavour Group can resolve these issues and get back to business creating value for all shareholders. Nonetheless, I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to dissect the Endeavour Group strategy at this ... meeting.”
Mr Perkins said he had spoken with all members of the Mathieson family, and met in person with Mr Wavish to listen to his plans for Endeavour.
“We have considered this carefully at the board level. Brad and the management team have had multiple opportunities as a large shareholder to communicate with the Endeavour management team,” Mr Perkins said.
“We continue to believe that appropriate action was to support the board but with a clear message that there is work to do and that we obviously look forward to a return in performance from our investment.”
Endeavour will hold is annual meeting on Tuesday.
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