AgriBioTech Inc. Announces Board Changes and an Executive Appointment to Support Company Integration and Internal Growth Efforts
HENDERSON, Nev.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 1, 1999--AgriBioTech Inc. (ABT) (Nasdaq/NM:ABTX) Monday announced that as a result of the shift in company focus from growth to integration and operations, it is making changes in both the makeup and size of its board of directors.
Two senior managers have been appointed to the board of directors, and the company has launched a search to add three additional outside members to the board, which will create a new, nine-person board with a majority being outside directors.
Dr. Tom Rice, vice president, director of Research, and Randy Ingram, vice president, chief financial officer (CFO), director of Business Development, joined the company's board as directors, effective Monday.
Rice and Ingram have replaced John Francis and Scott Loomis, members of the founder management team and former vice presidents of the company. Both Francis and Loomis will remain with the company in their current positions -- Francis as investor-relations director and Loomis as director of Mexico operations -- however, not as officers or directors.
"We thank John Francis and Scott Loomis for their contributions to building ABT through acquisitions," said Dr. Johnny R. Thomas, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). "Now that we have achieved a leadership position in the forage and turfgrass seed sector, however, it is appropriate to change our board makeup to reflect our needs to shift to a focus on integration and operations.
"We are confident that Dr. Rice and Randy Ingram, and the new outside directors expected to join the ABT board, will help us do that and lead the company in its next phase of development."
As part of that effort, Kent Schulze, president and chief operating officer (COO), Monday announced that the company has retained an experienced human resources (HR) executive to support ABT's integration efforts, which are under way.
"This will support our companywide integration efforts that are now moving toward the final phases of implementation," said Schulze, "and will be important in helping us achieve our long-term goals of achieving significantly improved operating efficiencies and synergies to improve company performance."
The ABT integration effort is called Project ABT. It is designed to create a single, customer-focused, R&D-based company out of the 34 companies ABT has acquired to date.
Schulze announced that Robert Machin has been retained as an HR adviser. Machin will be part of an integration team that will develop, lead and implement an HR integration plan designed to organize ABT into a single, customer-focused business entity.
Machin's most recent position was that of senior vice president, Human Resources, at RHODIA Inc. (formerly Rhone-Poulenc Inc.). At Rhone-Poulenc, he coordinated and supervised major personnel changes associated with 14 mergers and acquisitions and company sales growth from $300 million to $2.5 billion in a three-year period.
Machin has extensive senior HR management experience in leading, designing and implementing comprehensive human-resources programs, including that at Rhone-Poulenc and in previous senior and executive HR management positions at Owens Illinois Inc. and General Motors.
"Our ABT integration plans will help lay the foundation for our efforts to turn ABT into a mirror image of the value-creation process now in place in other seed sectors," said Schulze, "and we intend to retain and work with exceptional internal talent and recruit and draw upon outside skills as needed to assist us in doing so."
AgriBioTech is a fully integrated full-service seed company specializing in the forage and turfgrass seed sector, complete with research and development of proprietary seed varieties, seed- processing plants, and a national and international distribution and sales network. AgriBioTech's vision is to lead the turf and forage seed industry in discovering its value potential.
The statements discussed in this news release include forward- looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These include the company's historical lack of profitability, need to manage its growth, intense competition in the seed industry, seasonality of quarterly results, weather conditions, volatile stock price and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission reports.
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CONTACT:
AgriBioTech Inc., Henderson
John Francis, 702/566-2440
702/566-2450 (fax)
www.agribiotech.com |
