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Stuffddcoddnz -- New Zealand
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Eight Humanware staff made redundant
By TINA LAW
REDUNDANCIES: HumanWare chief executive Richard Mander, left,
and corporate service vice-president Hassan Wong are still acting
on their strategic plan.
Christchurch's HumanWare is laying off eight staff, despite
saying there would be no changes following a takeover in May.
Chief executive Dr Richard Mander said the company's strategic
plan had not changed, but it decided it no longer needed eight
staff.
"As with other manufacturers in New Zealand, continued
fluctuations and the high value of the dollar have put pressure
on the company's performance.
"Consequently HumanWare has looked very hard at every position
and eliminated any positions that are not required."
Humanware, a designer and manufacturer of electronic aids for
the blind and visually impaired, was taken over by Australian
private-equity fund Jolimont Capital in May.
It owns about 70 per cent of the company and senior management
hold the remaining 30%. The company has about 230 staff
worldwide, including 67 now in Christchurch.
A range of positions were being made redundant at HumanWare's
Christchurch product development centre, including engineering
and technical roles. Two management positions were being
disestablished.
"We're not making changes in what we are doing, but we looked
at our strategic plan and determined there were eight positions
that we no longer needed.
"It's part of normal business process."
Hassan Wong, the firm's corporate services vice-president, was
also leaving.
Wong is the stepson of HumanWare's founder, the late Dr Russell
Smith, and is the last family connection at HumanWare.
Smith and his wife, Marian D'Eve, died in a light plane crash
in 2005.
Wong said the decision to leave was a difficult one for
"obvious reasons", but with a second child on the way, he wanted
to spend more time with his family.
"A lot of family time, effort and commitment has gone into this
business. I've re-evaluated things as you have to do every now
and then and my wife and I decided it was a decision that should
be made at this point in time.
"I've been very busy for the last couple of years. I've
decided it's time to focus on the family for a little while."
Wong planned to keep his 5% shareholding.
He said he was thankful for the support of Jolimont Capital and
Mander.
"There is no ill feeling or anything like that," Wong said.
Mander said it was difficult for employees when there were
redundancies.
"Their contributions to this process greatly helped us to
determine which roles we really needed in order to move forward
with our strategic plans."
Mander said no more redundancies were planned.
HumanWare was now focusing on new product development, partly
funded by a Government technology development grant worth more
than $1 million over two years.
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