A boardroom dust-up could be in the offing at eastern-European focused drinks maker Stock Spirits (STCK) after its largest individual shareholder moved to oust chief executive Chris Heath.
Western Gate Private Investments, which owns a 9.7 per cent stake in the company, has requisitioned the board with proposals that include hiring an executive search firm to find a replacement for Mr Heath. The activist investor has also nominated two new independent non-executive directors to stand for election to the Stock Spirits board at the 17 May annual general meeting.
Western Gate represents the private family office of Luis Amaral and met company management and the board prior to Stock Spirits' major review of its Polish operations, which were suffering amid heavy discounting by rivals in the country.
But Western Gate said the review contained "nothing new to adequately address the most serious problem in its business", which is the "dramatic loss of market share in the core Polish market and the resulting decline in revenue". There was also the claim corporate costs had risen 111 per cent since 2011 while revenues had declined 11 per cent in that time.
However, Stock's management said Mr Amaral had a "conflict of interest" given he is chief executive of Eurocash, one of the company's largest customers in Poland and so his aims were not in line with all shareholders.
