Haythornthwaite steps down

Invensys chief executive Rick Haythornthwaite has made good his promise to leave the company once he had secured a turnaround. He is to step down in July, to be replaced by current chief operating officer, Ulf Henrickssen.

‘I have signalled for some while that I would hand over the reins at Invensys when the group had turned the corner and we had found a suitable successor,’ says Haythornthwaite, who has been with the company for four years.

‘Following the successful completion of the refinancing last year and the progress we have made since then with our business recovery programmes, that time has arrived,’ he adds.

Invensys’s losses widened last year, with goodwill writedowns following the sale of several businesses wiping £438million off the bottom line. Overall, pre-tax losses amounted to £500million, from £368million in the previous year; operating profits from continuing businesses fell back from £182million to £178million. The pensions deficit was £600million, down from over £900million when Haythornthwaite took the reins of the company.

Henrickssen joined Invensys last year from Eaton Hydraulic, and was rewarded with a £2million ‘golden hello’ payment. He has previously worked for Honeywell, giving him sector experience which, according to Haythornthwaite, is essential for leading the company ‘forward to the next stage of its recovery’.

However, Henrickssen is not underestimating the scale of the task ahead of him. ‘Although many challenges lie ahead, the potential for operational improvement is considerable,’ he says. ‘Each of our businesses knows what is expected of it, and we have clear plans in place to improve their performance.’