New look for Spedding

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 20

New look for Spedding

PA Wellington The renamed, new-look Spedding Consolidated, Ltd, is to move its head office from Auckland to Wellington.

The chairman Mr P. H. Wise told shareholders at the annual meeting this week Spedding would be in Wellington by the end of the year and application for a name change to Tag Corwration, Ltd, would be sent :o the Stock Exchange immediately. He said the company was looking forward to much improved profitability. Although Spedding made a $220,568 operating profit last year, this was converted to a solid loss by the write-off of $BOO,OOO of reconstruction costs and provisions.

Mr Wise said it was unlikely that more of these costs would be written off this year.

“A year or two ago, we had countless loss-making divisions, branches and companies. Today, every unit is making profit,” he said.

Spedding’s head office, when it moves to Wellington will be run in conjunction with the Anthony Group’s, which holds a 51 per cent stake in the company. While Spedding will change its name, its subsidiaries will retain the Spedding prefix. Mr Wise said the company believed in decentralisation with a “keen and lean” head office. The reconstruction had been expensive, he said, “but the growth and earning potential of the company has been greatly enhanced by the liquidation of some millions of dollars worth of unproductive assets, quite often at a loss.”