Stock Spirits shake-up ordered by Portugal's Amaral

A boardroom shake-up at Stock Spirits has been demanded by Portuguese cash-and-carry tycoon Luis Amaral, who owns 10% of the vodka maker.

Amaral's Western Gate vehicle said on Tuesday that it had requisitioned the removal of the company's chief executive, Chris Heath, and has nominated two new independent non-executive directors to join the board that it said had "run out of ideas".

The proposals will both be put to a shareholder vote at next month's annual general meeting.

Western Gate, which pointed out that it was the largest individual shareholder in Stock Spirits and was investing on long-term basis, said it had met with both executive and non-executive members of the board after it felt the 'root and branch' review of Polish operations after November's profit warning "contain nothing new to adequately address the most serious problem in its business - the dramatic loss of market share in the core Polish market and resulting decline in revenue".

Amaral said the discussions with directors have even raised further concerns regarding the company's proposed new acquisitive strategy.

"Financial performance has been poor, market share has been lost in its core Polish market, salaries and costs are too high and remote control management of the business from the UK, where the Company has no major revenue generating operations, is clearly not working," he said.

"The executive team consistently blames others instead of being on the ground in Poland addressing the local market dynamics and managing the business. A fresh perspective on the board will benefit all stakeholders."

Backing up their argument, Western Gate noted that along with a share price that has halved since 2014, it claimed corporate costs have soared 111% since 2011, with corporate costs of €16.7m in the UK last year, whilst revenues have declined 11% over the same period.

It added: "We believe the executive management team have run out of ideas about how to stem the ongoing market share losses affecting the Polish business and the board would benefit from added relevant experience, a fresh perspective and renewed energy."

The two proposed new board members are ex Heineken and Scottish & Newcastle man Alberto Da Ponte and ex PepsiCo veteran Randy Pankevicz.