Andy Hornby Heads Back To Retail With Boots Chief Exec Job

Andy Hornby, the boyish ex-chief exec of HBOS who has the air of a man who never quite got over a toilet-based bullying incident in public school, is set to rebuild his image after being set to take on the big job at Boots. The retailer said Hornby was a “leading candidate” for the chief exec role.

He’ll be taking on a company that’s looking pretty rosy despite the slowdown in consumer spending – sales for the year to March 31 were up 16%, creating pre-tax profits of £13m. It does still have a huge amount of debt on its books though, after chairman Stefano Pessina, along with private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, bought the company out for £12.4bn in 2007; the bill for that finance ran to £853m last year. At least Hornby is used to the after-effects of highly leveraged buyouts!

Pessina said he would invest £1bn in the company, and so far he’s been steadily pumping cash into establishing the Boots brand across the world, refurbishing and rebranding stores in areas like Scandinavia and the low countries. He also spent £184m on acquisitions last year, and is hoping the beleaguered Merckle family want to sell their drug wholesale business Phoenix.

It appears that Hornby’s constant moaning that HBOS was already crocked when he took the helm has proven persuasive – he must be relieved that the episode seems not to have scuppered his career. The established narrative places Hornby as merely being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The real blame has fallen either side of him – the disastrous assets and overextended position of HBOS being caused by James Crosby, and the massive losses at new owners Lloyds being thanks to the greed of Lloyds chair Victor Blank. In going to Boots, Hornby is back on familiar and less high-profile ground, having successfully headed up Asda in the 90s.

While Hornby has been rehabilitated, something tells me that Fred Goodwin might find it a little harder. Is he still hanging out with Jackie Stewart in Switzerland? Well, no-one really knows, and according to his spokesman, “Some of the guesswork so far has been pretty wide of the mark”. Goodwin also managed to further distance himself from the love of the British public by threatening to sue Viz for depicting him burning banknotes to stay warm. Let’s face it – this guy is never going to work again.

Posted by Ben Beaumont-Thomas in Hot Money | June 8, 2009 10:41AM |