Photo by: Duane Daws
JSE-listed Illovo Sugar on Tuesday announced that it had appointed subsidiary company Ubombo Sugar’s current MD John Hulley group operations director from September 1.
This followed the appointment of current group operations director Gavin Dalgleish as group MD, to succeed Graham Clark, who is leaving Illovo to pursue a new career opportunity elsewhere in Africa.
“Hulley has significant operational experience within the group and the sugar industry in general,” Illovo said in a statement on Tuesday.
Further, the Illovo board also announced the resignation of Richard Pike as
nonexecutive director, with effect from August 31. Pike has served on the Illovo board since January 2010, when he joined Illovo majority shareholder AB Sugar, as group FD. Pike was appointed MD of AB Sugar subsidiary British Sugar in September 2012.
Consequently, Illovo has appointed Graham Rhodes as nonexecutive director with effect from September 1. Rhodes was appointed as AB Sugar FD in March.
Illovo recently reported that it had seen a positive start to the 2013/14 season on the production front and that the rand exchange rate was advantageous to earnings, but added that market conditions for the sugar industry remained difficult.
Low-cost imports continued to place sugar pricing in South Africa and Tanzania under pressure and the stronger Malawi kwacha had been driving a 5% price reduction in the market.
The global surplus of production also continued to negatively impact on the world sugar price, Illovo chairperson Don MacLeod said, adding that current prices were now below the cost of production for most sugar producers worldwide.
Overall, the group’s sugar production was expected to increase to around 1.9-million tons.