Feltex head leaves without redundancy payout

Peter Thomas

Former Feltex Carpets chief executive Peter Thomas handed over the company's reins without compensation for redundancy, receiver Colin Nicol said yesterday.

Nicol would not disclose whether Thomas, 57, was entitled to compensation, but said the transfer of power after ANZ called in its $135 million in loans last week had occurred smoothly.

"[Peter] has been great. He has been helpful to me, there has been no resistance and no problems. He has offered whatever we needed," said Nicol, of McGrathNicol and Partners.

A board member since 1996, Thomas was also part of the Credit Suisse First Boston private equity fund that bought Feltex from BTR Nylex through a management buyout in 1996 and then floated the firm on the stock exchange at $1.70 a share. He was also a beneficiary of the fund.

His pay as chief executive was never disclosed, but at the time of his appointment he said it would be materially lower than the package of his ousted predecessor, Sam Magill. In 2004, Magill pocketed $2.5 million.

Meanwhile, Nicol said the business was operating well despite the receivership. Yesterday he was able to confirm warranties on the carpet maker's products, after satisfying himself that quality had not deteriorated.

"The unions have been great. The help we have been getting on the ground has been first class," Nicol said.

Feltex, Australia's second-largest carpet maker after Godfrey Hirst, floated in 2004. But the firm unravelled after a sharp slowdown in earnings in its key Australian market early last year, failed merger talks with Godfrey Hirst and growing debts to ANZ.

It plunged from a $12.1 million profit in the year to June 2005 to a loss of $57.7 million this year.