Confectionary company Yowie has announced changes to its management team, following a takeover bid by Keybridge Capital Limited resulting in the acquisition of 78.4 per cent of the company's holding. The board appointed Nicholas Bolton, who is also the managing director of Keybridge, as the new Yowie CEO.
In January 2024, Keybridge Capital Limited announced an off-market takeover offer for Yowie Group at 3.4 cents per share. At the time, Keybridge had a 35.5 per cent interest in the company and had previously attempted a takeover in 2019.
The bid closed on 26 April, by which time Keybridge’s interest in Yowie’s shares had increased to 78.36 per cent. As described in the initial Bidder’s Statement released by Keybridge, Yowie has now become a partly owned subsidiary of the company.
With this result, the board announced that Nicholas Bolton, who also acts as managing director of Keybridge, has been appointed global chief executive officer of Yowie.
He replaces Mark Schuessler, who officially retired from his company roles in July 2023, but had been assisting the company in the ensuing months.
Bolton said that he was "incredibly pleased" to take Yowie on its next adventure.
“Following Keybridge’s successful takeover, my initial focus as CEO is to aggressively rationalise the costs structure of the business whilst promoting innovative products at sustainable margins,” said Bolton.
The company stated that the current Board and management were undertaking structural changes to operations, which aim to achieve annual ongoing savings of over $1.5 million each year, after accounting for the cost of the executive changes.
It has been a tough year for Yowie, with the company’s April results showing a significant operational loss of $548,000 – bringing financial year to date losses to $2.6 million. The company stated that $1.77 million of the losses incurred resulted from unprofitable seasonal sales and the reinvigoration of the Ernest Hillier facility that Yowie acquired in September 2023.
“The Yowie products form an important part of Australian culture, and I am very proud to be part of the team that takes Yowie to the world,” said Bolton.
Other management changes included the resignation of former executive chairman and director, Sean Taylor, as of 18 April. He had been acting in the role of chairman since December 2021, and was replaced internally by John Patton.
Andrew Ranger, a technology entrepreneur and digital marketer, was appointed to the vacant executive director role.
