Godfreys founder to secure 100pc ownership of firm

GODFREYS founder John Johnston will win his bid for outright ownership of the vacuum cleaner retailer ahead of his 100th birthday, after securing a 90 per cent stake.

Mr Johnston, who turns 100 next month, will now push ahead with a compulsory ac- quisition of the remaining shares through his familyowned investment vehicle Arcade Finance.

He aims to take the business off the Australian Securities Exchange and set about rebuilding its failing fortunes.

The veteran business leader first proposed buying back the company in April through Arcade. He and Godfrey Cohen launched Godfreys more than eight decades ago.

It was snapped up by private equity investors CCMP Capital Asia and Pacific Equity Partners for about $300 million in 2006.

In May, the 99-year-old won over two major shareholders who agreed to sell their stakes to him after he increased his bid for the struggling company from $13.1 million to $13.7 million.

Arcade has now secured 91.21 per cent of the retailer’s shares and will proceed with the compulsory acquisition of the rest.

Since joining the ASX in 2014, with its shares issued at $2.75 each, Godfreys has been plagued by falling sales, multiple changes of senior management, and a sustained slide in its share price to an all-time low of 21 in April.

In May, Godfreys blamed its television ads for a big dive in sales that forced the vacuum cleaner retailer to cut its fullyear earnings guidance for the second time in two weeks.

The retailer warned it was likely to breach loan covenants after like-for-like sales for the previous two weeks were 27 per cent lower than in the same period last year. John Hardy, the man who featured in Godfreys’ famous bowling ball TV ads, has since returned as chief executive.