Consignia chairman denies new chief will be poached from Asda
Allan Leighton, chairman of Consignia, has quashed spec ulation that the next chief executive of the mail operator would come from Asda, the food and clothing retailer, saying it “would not be professional” to poach staff from the company he once ran.
The company also disclosed yesterday that the Consignia name would be consigned to history on Monday to adopt the more familiar tag of Royal Mail Group.
Mr Leighton said he was considering a shortlist of six to fill the post of John Roberts, who will leave at the end of the year.
He would not be drawn on who figured on the list. But against the expectations of many industry insiders, Mr Leighton said he was not looking for anyone from Asda and not particularly considering anyone from the retail sector.
“The main criterion,” he said, “is that the individual should be one of the best leaders in the country to fill one of the most difficult jobs in Britain” and to help the company effect the “turnaround of all time”.
Consignia, which is losing Pounds 1.2m a day, is in the first months of an Pounds 800m three-year restructuring effort.
Consignia said in May that Mr Roberts would resign and the company would change its name before the end of the year. It followed the announcement of the worst financial results in the history of the Post Office and substantial job cuts.
Consignia is struggling to meet the performance targets set by Postcomm, the post regulator, just months before the market opens up to partial competition.
The Consignia name – adopted when the Post Office Group obtained plc status in March last year – became one of the most ridiculed corporate rebrandings in recent memory.
Consignia spent Pounds 2m when it adopted the new name, of which Pounds 500,000 was the cost of the name change. It will cost an estimated Pounds 1m to change it back to Royal Mail, due to altering the signs on its 3,000 buildings to meet company law requirements.
But Mr Leighton said he thought things were starting to fall into place. “There’s no turnaround yet but things are not getting worse and that’s important,” he said.
Consignia also announced it had for the first time appointed a chief information officer to the board.
David Burden, formerly executive general manager of technology and services at Qantas, starts at Consignia today.
Mr Leighton said further senior appointments would be announced shortly.
“There will be a much stronger focus on how the top management supports our frontline employees,” he said.
