Carmanah Technologies is looking for a new chief executive and two directors are leaving after major shareholders sought changes.
Bruce Cousins has resigned as the solar-power products company’s CEO, while Robert Cruickshank and Daniel Nocente have quit the board of directors.
The company did not give reasons for the departures. But a Carmanah statement said the “changes are a direct result of recent [annual general meeting] voting results whereby major shareholders of the company had expressed their interests.”
Cousins didn’t shed much more light during an interview, saying only that there had been interesting feedback from the company’s shareholders at the annual general meeting.
“They were asking for some changes so the board and I have responded to that,” Cousins said, adding he could not speculate on the reasoning from the shareholder group. “It wasn’t entirely clear, but that was the feedback I received and I am stepping up to that. It is a disappointing transition from my perspective.” Cousins has been CEO since 2011 when he replaced Ted Lattimore, who resigned in the spring of that year.
Both Cruickshank and Nocente offered to resign in May this year after both received more “votes withheld” than “votes for” at the annual general meeting. Cruickshank received nearly 14 million votes withheld and just 5.2 million votes for, while Nocente had 11.3 million votes withheld and 7.6 million votes for.
By comparison, the three other directors up for election — Cousins, Bob Wiens and Peter Berrang — each received between 17.4 million and 18.8 million votes for.
Carmanah said Cousins “will remain in his role until the appointment of a successor in order to allow for an orderly transition” and the two directors positions will be filled by Michael Sonnenfeldt, a major Carmanah shareholder, and John Simmons.
Carmanah has had a rough ride in recent years and shareholders have questioned the company’s direction and reasoning behind its dropping share price. The firm’s stock price has tumbled steadily since hovering around $4 a share in 2006. On Tuesday, Carmanah shares were unchanged at 27.5 cents per share on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
In the first quarter of this year, ended March 31, Carmanah reported a $700,000 loss, an improvement over the $900,000 loss in the same quarter of 2012. Revenues improved, up $1.6 million, to $7 million. Last year Carmanah lost $3.9 million.
Cousins said there have been signs of life as the company refocused its efforts on the kinds of signalling products that fueled growth in the early years. “I think the company has come a long way in the last year and half to two years.”
Still, the company is a shadow of its former self. At one time, it had revenues of $60 million annually and a workforce of 260. Over the course of the last five years the firm has trimmed its ranks to about 70 and most manufacturing is now done offshore.
Cousins said as his resignation has “evolved fairly quickly” he has no immediate plans other than spending time on his boat.
