Fletcher Challenge Forests prunes management

Fletcher Challenge Forests is taking a chainsaw to its management structure to prune head office costs by $13 million a year.

The company, which is in the process of selling its forest assets to concentrate on the high margin wood processing business, yesterday said it had restructured its senior executive management team and further staff cuts were imminent.

Fletcher chief executive John Dell said the company was trimming senior management, "to reflect the strategic decision to refocus our activities around wood processing, marketing and distribution rather than forestry".

The resized executive team will consist of Mark Eglington as director of sales and marketing, Paul Gillard as director of corporate and legal services, and Brett Cruickshank as chief financial officer.

Acting director of operations Ian Boyd retires in June.

Gillard would not say who, or how many among the management team were on the way out.

"We're looking at cutting out around about $13 million out of head office costs and core costs. A lot of that will be IT."

Fletcher announced in December it had decided to sell its 106,000ha forest estate to a consortium led by Kiwi Forests Group for $725 million.

- NZPA