Chang quits Lasco Distributors
Published:Friday | July 1, 2011 | 12:00 AM
The Lasco affiliated companies made their junior market debut only last year, but one of the principal actors in the group has announced that he is moving on - sort of.
Anthony Chang, managing director of Lasco Distributors Limited, will demit office this month to rejoin his family business and pursue private interests.
But he will remain on the Lasco group board. Chang simply wants a break from corporate Jamaica, he explained.
"I am not retiring and was not asked to leave," he told the Financial Gleaner Thursday.
"I am still on the board, which indicates that the chairman (Lascelles Chin) still wants my input."
The Lasco Distributors stock traded down 13 cents Thursday at J$6.60; while sister stock Lasco Manufacturing rose three cents to J$8.10.
Chang gave notice this week of his resignation which will take effect on July 31.
"I have played my part," he said. "My task was, in part, to take the company public."
Chang expressed confidence in his replacement but declined to name the person in order to respect company protocol. Yesterday, he assured investors that the company's performance would remain "strong" and that his influence would still be felt on the board.
"I am leaving at the end of the quarter. The team has good leaders in place. And, furthermore, I am not really going anywhere because I am still on the board," he said.
He will pursue other business interests while working with Consolidated Bakeries, a family business. Chang, who joined the Lasco group three years ago, expressed satisfaction that he contributed to the group's triple public listing, its near tripling of profits and share price.
"While I can't claim 100 per cent because we have a good team in place, I had an input," said Chang, a past president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce.
Lasco Distributors made J$306.5 million in net profit from J$6.75 billion in revenues for its financial year ending March 2011.
Chang joined Lasco in 2009 as group managing director. The split into three divisions listed on the stock exchange saw him assigned to manage the distribution arm, the largest of the triplets by assets of J$1.65 billion.
In June, Lascelles Chin announced a US$11 million (J$943 million) factory investment in sister company Lasco Manufacturing Limited to grow that business.
The investment will increase capacity at its White Marl, St Catherine, factory by 70 per cent enabling it to launch new product lines and come close to doubling sales by 2014.
Chang, a graduate of the prestigious US-based Wharton School of Business, has more than two decades of top management experience.