early in 1995. He would then have a better idea of the sort of person he
wished to appoint. Denise Lincoln resigned soon afterwards, by ‘mutual
consent’: her position was no longer felt to merit a seat on the board.
Higginson’s resignation followed within a month, together with a declara-
tion from a fourth board member, Alphons Schouten, that he too intended
to quit (see Table 6.1.7 for profiles of directors, 1993/94).
The company’s future now lay in the hands of Blakeway Webb, Bernard
Ashley and the company’s other Non-executive Directors. A new Finance
Director was quickly appointed, but Denise Lincoln would not be replaced.
Her seat on the board was to be taken instead by retail executive Stephen
Cotter. As the summer passed, it became clear that cost cutting was once
more the order of the day at Laura Ashley. But as the half year end
approached, investors were again told that they were unlikely to see a div-
idend. Profits would be depressed by a £1.2 million severance deal for the
departing Maxmin, and a further £200,000 for the removal of Lincoln,
together amounting to almost half of last year’s pre-tax profits. A
spokesman for the company said that ‘investors would understand that
this was just a one-off charge’.^14
Creating and implementing relationship marketing strategies 451
Jim Maxmin, who was ousted last week as Chief Executive of Laura Ashley, once told
me proudly how he had a special ‘Bullshit’ rubber stamp.This he fearlessly applied to
deserving documents. It always seemed an ironic prospect. The documents most
crying out for treatment were Mr Maxmin’s own mission statements, management
slogans, marketing guff and other jargon. The Bullshit stamp could also be applied to
virtually every optimistic prediction to come out of the retail group since its flota-
tion in 1985. Time and again Laura Ashley has announced that the worst was over,
only to stumble upon another skeleton in the wardrobe ... The pathetic fact remains
that shareholders, who paid 135p a share when the group came to the stock market
in a massively hyped flotation nine years ago, have been repeatedly disappointed.The
shares ended last week at 75.5p.
The man now in charge as executive chairman is Hugh Blakeway Webb. A barris-
ter and former partner with accounting firm Deloitte Haskins & Sells, Mr Blakeway
Webb had advised the Ashley family on their tax affairs since 1982 and has been
closely associated with the company’s management ever since, joining the board in- You might think this would be a very good reason for not putting him in sole
charge now. But this is what has happened. Mr Blakeway Webb, who has never run
even the smallest of whelk stalls, now heads a business with a turnover of £300m
spread across 28 countries.And there are no immediate plans to appoint a new chief
executive. It could only happen at Laura Ashley.
Figure 6.1.2
Source: Patrick Hosking,Independent on Sunday, 17 April 1994.