Guzman y Gomez appoints Kmart and Target executive as new CFO
Guzman y Gomez, the chain of Mexican-themed restaurants, has appointed Erik du Plessis, a Kmart and Target executive, as its chief financial officer.
The company, which is backed by Barrenjoey Capital Partners, Aware Super and TDM Growth Partners, is working toward an ASX listing which its investors suggest could value it at more than $2 billion.
But it has suffered from significant management instability this year. The Australian Financial Review reported earlier this week that TDM had stepped in to run Guzman y Gomez’ legal and human resources functions at after an exodus of senior management over the last 12 months.
Guzman y Gomez co-chief executives Steven Marks and Hilton Brett. Mr Brett is also a partner at TDM, one of the company’s major investors. Brent Lewin
Mr du Plessis, currently the commercial and strategy general manager at Kmart and Target, is expected to start in April. The company said he was “a proven finance leader within a blue-chip retail operation with significant scale and complexity which is exactly what GYG were looking for.”
Mr du Plessis will be reporting to Hilton Brett “working closely with co-CEO Steven Marks,” the company added. Mr Brett, a TDM partner, was appointed as co-chief executive after Guzman y Gomez’s founder, Mr Marks, said he would leave in May due to a health scare before changing his mind.
Earlier, a Guzman y Gomez spokeswoman had told the Financial Review that the company would not have announced Mr Marks’ departure in the way that it had, describing it as “confusing and unsettling for everyone”.
“When Steven was made aware that the health scare was not as serious as originally thought, he was able to ... stay on. If we had our time again, would we have announced this so early? No, we would have waited,” she said.
The company’s previous chief financial officer, Rebecca Lowde, left earlier this year after only 10 months with Guzman y Gomez. When she exited, she told staff in an email that she had been at the company for “a far shorter period of time than what I expected to be”. But she wished the company success, in her email citing her interest in working in the technology sector as one reason she had decided to leave Guzman y Gomez.
Mr du Plessis arrives as the company considers its strategic options, including whether to list on the ASX. Guzman y Gomez posted a 32 per cent increase in network sales to $759 million in the last financial year, and has forecast $50 million in underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, up from $33.4 million in the 12 months to June 30.
Guzman y Gomez has more than 200 stores across Australia, Singapore, Japan, and four stores in the United States.
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