Buhler places new faces at top
Holds annual meeting today
Winnipeg Free Press
Sat Jan 29 2005
By Martin Cash
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WITH steel prices twice as high as they were a year ago, BSE still knocking the stuffing out of the beef industry and the Canadian dollar 26 per cent higher than it was two years ago, today's annual meeting of Buhler Industries will not necessarily be a celebration of growth.
But the agricultural equipment manufacturer does have a couple of significant new senior management appointments to announce -- Grant Adolph as chief operating officer and Ossama AbouZeid as chief financial officer.
AbouZeid was the longtime president of Central Canadian Structures, a Winnipeg construction company that was involved in about 40 different construction projects for Buhler during the last several years. Adolph was the operations manager at Buhler Versatile and now becomes the senior executive to which all plant operations managers report.
"With such senior positions, it is important to us that not only the candidates have the skills and abilities required, but also that there is cultural fit with the company as well," Buhler Industries president Craig Engel said in an interview. "We're very pleased with both appointments and we believe there is an excellent fit with both of them."
In the case of AbouZeid, his move to Buhler Industries almost required the purchase of Central Canadian Structures, the company founded by AbouZeid's father-in-law Harry Giesbrecht. AbouZeid had essentially bought out Giesbrecht's position in CCS by the late 1990s.
"I wanted to settle things at CCS before starting at Buhler and although there was some interest in Buhler acquiring it, Harry bought it back from me," AbouZeid said. "The company has a rich history and a good track record with good projects on the go and Harry did not want the company to become just a small part of a much bigger company." AbouZeid has more than 20 years experience in the construction business and has extensive experience in eastern Europe where CCS has been on the vanguard of post-Soviet-era construction projects.
Buhler has more than doubled its sales to places other than Canada and the U.S. during the last year and AbouZeid is expected to play an important role in the further development of eastern European markets.
Adolph was appointed operations manager at Versatile shortly after Buhler bought it in 2000. Engel said it was hard to function as president and chief operating officer of a company with 10 plants and seven distribution centres.
"Grant's appointment is already showing dividends," Engel said. "He's clearly the right guy. These appointments set the company up for the next stage of evolution."
John Buhler has said in the past that Engel would be named CEO of the company once his own successor was in place. While it seems to be what's happened, Buhler suggested in an interview there probably would not be any other management announcements at today's meeting.
Buhler said he would probably hold off making any announcements on his replacement as CEO until after the BSE issue has been sorted out, steel prices stabilized and the Canadian dollar is on a more predictable trend. "I have always said I will step down when I'm no longer having any fun," Buhler, 71, said. "The company is totally managed by Craig now, but thankfully they still ask me to get involved in things. I realize I have to give up the reins, but it is hard."
Frederic Bastien, an analyst with Raymond James in Vancouver, said last week's first-quarter results, although they included a 21.3 per cent drop in net earnings, were in line with expectations.
"It's not fair for me to make judgments on the new executive appointments because I am not familiar with them, but I will say we are very impressed with the way Engel has managed the company through these challenges," Bastien said in a telephone interview from Vancouver.
Buhler shares closed down two cents yesterday at $7.23 in trading of 5,200 shares.