I worked in Corporate Australia for 50 years the majority in...

I worked in Corporate Australia for 50 years the majority in manufacturing companies of various sizes and industries. In all my years working in the financial, management and ultimately consulting capacity I have never seen such a shocking display of ineptitude, arrogance, selfishness, incompetence and so forth.

JHL's father the ex Chairperson, when he retired, was told not to put JHL in charge but to appoint expert management. It was probably the biggest mistake of his life. He insisted she was to be the next Chair person. That's fine so long as you have the skills. She didn't.

She destroyed the place nobody else. The problem was that as Hills family owned so many shares she couldn't be voted out. The only reason she left was because she could see this coming and didn't want to be on the Titanic. They have been in financial strife for years. No dividends, for lets have a count back, its so long ago.

They appointed the wrong personnel particularly in Management, I expect because she wanted yes people around her. You may or may not have been reading my posts over the years in which I have been particularly critical of HIL. This time has been coming for the last two years and I have said such on many occasions. This is not unexpected but it is a travesty that such an icon has the gone the way of also rans. Even if it survives it will be a minnow.

Management inexperience, ineptitude, too much debt, lack of understanding inventory and its quirks, the cost of holding the inventory, inadequate margins, cost structure too high and ultimately aligning HIL strategy to basically the building industry brought this Company to its knees.

The unfortunate part is that two to three years ago it was salvagable, I believe, but they couldn't see the path they turned down, they were blind to opportunities for profitability.

Anyway it's too late now but it goes to show the importance of having proper management in place when you are in control of a multi million dollar business. We all live and learn, often the hard way, by the destruction, in this case, of inter generational wealth.

Anybody stepping in to save them now is an idiot.

I can't wait to see what happens next, in the meanwhile have a nice day.