CPI  appointments 
Gerry van Wyngen, Chairman of CPI Group Limited (CPI) recently announced, that Steve Somogyi will at an appropriate time, step down as chief executive officer of CPI. This announcement comes hot on the heels of Federal Treasurer Peter Costello’s recommendation to the Federal Executive Council that Somogyi be appointed as a full-time member of the streamlined, three-man Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), a mantle that Somogyi has gratefully accepted. According to van Wyngen, Somogyi is supporting a search process being conducted by the Board to appoint a managing director with direct industry experience. Both internal and external candidates are being considered.

Van Wyngen believes that the changes carried through by Somogyi during his two years at the top and the CPI management team now places CPI in a sound position for the future. With a much stronger Balance Sheet, the Board of Directors and Somogyi mutually agree there are now opportunities to undertake a more substantial push into the Australasian graphic arts market. The belief is that this will be best achieved under the leadership of a new managing director with a strong industry background.

During the past eighteen months CPI has re-engineered its business including:

Sold the CPI Trading unit which made losses in recent years, and in the process generated $10 million in cash which was used to reduce debt;

Renegotiated supply arrangements with paper, machinery, imaging and ink product manufacturers to enable better working capital utilisation;

Reduced the number of stock keeping units to substantially lower investment in inventory whilst maintaining a high ability to meet client product supply needs;

Reduced overhead costs substantially whilst maintaining service quality;

Carried through the important ’one source’ marketing strategy for CPI’s range of products backed by product specialists focussed on client requirements.

Acording to van Wyngen, these changes have resulted in a significantly lower business risk profile in a very challenging industry environment. As a result, some gains have been made in greater market penetration.

The foundations are now in place for an industry specialist to drive growth both organically and by acquisition. The Board hopes to announce the appointment of a managing director for CPI shortly.