Wattie’s promotion comes to Chch

Press, 21 June 1984, Page 24

Wattie’s promotion comes to Chch

Wattie Industries, Ltd’s search for excellence turned to Christchurch yesterday, when top executives of the company talked to 135 salaried staff from the group’s companies in the city. Wattie’s managing director, Mr John Haworth, and the managing director designate, Mr Cliff Lyon, having been stumping the country much in the manner of politicians, to explain to staff the restructuring being made to the Wattie’s group after the report on the group made by international management consultants.

The consultants were McKinsey and Company — two partners from the company wrote the new vogue management book, “In Search of Excellence.” That is the theme that Wattie’s has adopted in producing a video presentation and a booklet for staff to explain what the changes mean and to motivate employees. The salaried staff at yesterday’s meeting were given copies of the videotape so that it could be shown to their own employees, along with copies of the booklet, “A New Era For Wattie Industries.”

At the media presentation, Mr Haworth said that the McKinsey report had been made, not because there was anything wrong with Wattie’s, but because there needed to be some ideas on where it was heading.

McKinsey said Wattie was not in trouble in the

By

NEVIN TOPP

context of the Booz Allen report on the Railways Corporation. Indeed, McKinsey was identified with success, he said. Besides explaining the changes to staff because of the restructuring into four divisions — consumer foods, cereal milling and poultry, investments (included nonfood activities), and international, from the J. Wattie Canneries, Ltd, General Foods Corporation (NZ),

Ltd, and Cropper-NRM, Ltd, merger in 1969 — the meetings were also designed to offset the unsettling effects of the attempted take-over bid by NZ Forest Products, Ltd, earlier this year. Mr Lyon said that the McKinsey report had been commissioned in August, 1982, well ahead of the takeover battle. The report had been started in March, 1983, and completed in September.

The initial restructuring into four divisions had started on Janaury 1, and other changes were expected to take 18 months to complete. For example, at the moment there was a distribution task force finding out the best means of selling the group’s products. The questions raised included the number of calls that should be made on shops by sales representatives; whether there should be more merchandising managers and fewer sales representatives, and whether service accounts should be held at a more senior level, he said.