EXCLUSIVE: Breville Axes Senior Management
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Breville who are witnessing major growth in the US market, have started to axe staff in their domestic operations.

Richard Babekuhl pictured right, the former marketing manager at Breville and of late business manager at the Breville owned Kambrook along with Sonya Fetherston the sales and marketing operations manager have been given a pink slip.


Babekuhl said “I never saw this coming”. 
 
The move comes as Breville looks to expand their brand in the US where sales for Breville branded products grew overall by 19% last year Vs 8% overall growth for the 12 months in Australia and New Zealand. 

Babekuhl former marketing role at Breville has only just been filled with the appointment of Cliff Toring who has rebranded the position as Global Go-To-Market Officer.
 
Previously Toring has worked for Grey Advertising in New York, Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising in Hong Kong as well as like Polo Ralph Lauren and Nike. His most recent role was VP Global Brands director consumer for Nike.

Babekuhl, at this stage is not saying where he is going however ChannelNews understands that he is considering several offers. 

His exit comes as Breville is witnessing a rise in sales with both their Kambrook and Breville businesses. 

In his role running the Kambrook business Babekuhl was responsible for a portfolio, across over 200 product lines, It’s not known whether Breville which is currently undergoing a management shakeup will continue to invest in the Kambrook brand.  

Babekuhl led a team of 16 including Category Managers, Test Kitchen, Engineers and Sales to manage the New Product Development pipeline from concept to commercialisation.

Prior to taking on the internal Business Manager role at Kambrook he was responsible for the role out of several new Breville products. He joined the Company in 2011.

Last week Breville announced that they had lifted half year profit 4% but warns its future financial performance will be ‘unpredictable’.

The company made a net profit of $30.8 million for the six months to December 31, up from $29.7 million a year ago.

Breville, which sells Nespresso, Philips, Kambrook and Ronson branded products, said that sales for the six months grew 12.7 per cent to $331 million.

It expects mid-single digit earnings growth for the full year, but has flagged patchy international economic conditions as a major challenge going forward.

‘Given the continued sporadic business conditions across the globe, the group believes future financial performance will be relatively more unpredictable,’ the company said.

In the USA Breville is seen as an aspirational brand with the Company now looking to expand their brand offering in the US. 

In Australia Chief executive Jim Clayton is flagging a slowdown due to stiff competition and rising costs. Revenue in ANZ slipped 2.8 per cent.

Clayton said Breville was working on new ways to improve the future profitability of the Australian operation. 

‘The benefits of these initiatives will commence in the second half of the 2016 financial year,’ he said.