Hellaby Holdings has today announced the resignations of Neil MacCulloch, chief operating officer and Greg Batkin, chief investment officer as part of a corporate restructure.

As part of the restructure, neither position will be replaced as the company moves towards a decentralised business model.

The new strategic direction was announced today by managing director and CEO, Alan Clarke, following an in-depth six month review after he joined the company in November 2015.

“I was delighted to find that Hellaby has some fantastic scalable business groups where there are significant opportunities for us to add value and deliver attractive medium to long term investment returns to our shareholders,” said Alan.

“Our talented, experienced and highly knowledgeable technical and business teams are our biggest asset. Going forward, they will be empowered to build better businesses, with more responsibility and accountability.

“With the resignations of Neil MacCulloch, chief operating officer and Greg Batkin, chief investment officer, a decision has been made to not replace these positions. This means the individual business groups will take on full responsibility for their own performance outcomes and they will now drive their own market development.”

Hellaby’s head office team will oversee each group, with owner of footwear retailer chains, Hannas and Number One Shoes, anticpiating its smaller corporate team will culminate in a significant reduction in corporate overheads on an annualised basis.

“The Board fully supports the new strategic direction and believes it will enhance medium-to-long term shareholder value, as we position ourselves as a more focused owner and builder of scalable industrial and service related businesses, said chairman Steve Smith.

“With the move towards a more decentralised business model, we expect more interaction between the board and the individual group management teams, focused on strategy, markets, customers and people. “Hellaby’s balance sheet is strong with a conservative gearing of just under 30 per cent, below our target gearing of 45 per cent.

The Hellaby Group currently has 3,000 staff across New Zealand, Australia, the Middle East and the Americas. 30 per cent of its revenue is now generated offshore.