AFTER THE BELL: Spar and SAA lose their captains while becalmed in treacherous waters

Spar and SAA both show the unmistakable signs of ships in troubled waters, from boardroom resignations to suspended executives. The question now is whether strong leadership can steer them away from the rocks before it’s too late.

While there are a few indications that a company is in trouble, there is one obvious situation in which you know the ship is about to founder on the rocks.

Financial statements and numbers contain some of the indications that the fathoms below the keel are running scarce. Particularly if the moat that surrounds the company has been breached.

But the real-for-sure way of knowing a firm may be holed below the waterline is when one or more individuals are fired, or there is a sudden spate, or steady stream of resignations.

If the captains of the ship are fighting and have bust-ups over the compass readings and the correct course, you know it’s taking on water.

On Monday, the Stock Exchange News Service carried an announcement that both the chairperson and the deputy chairperson of Spar have resigned. Mike Bosman and Shirley Zinn are both leaving immediately.

There is something curious about the phrasing that suggests something is very odd here.

The statement reads that “While Mr Bosman and Dr Zinn continue to have the full support of the Board, taking into consideration the context of the period that both these directors and the Board have recently experienced” they have both “separately concluded that stepping down” is the right decision for them, and for the company.

There is the usual blah-blah about the board thanking them for their “dedication, professionalism and the meaningful legacy” they leave etc.

But there are no real answers to the only question that always matters: Who navigated us to this spot?

It’s true, as the statement points out, that Bosman found himself not just chairperson but executive chairperson for a while, he actually had to run the company when the previous CEO resigned suddenly. And when you actually have to captain on a minute-by-minute basis rather than just provide overall leadership as a commodore, that must be very difficult.

But to leave the bridge now, when your board backed you so publicly back in May creates so many questions.

The problems the group faces are well known; its franchise model has suddenly become a weakness when Shoprite can leverage its direct ownership of its stores to drive its delivery business, and Spar’s backroom logistics operations have been a disaster in KwaZulu-Natal (some estimates suggest it lost about R1.5-billion in turnover as a result).

All of this means it is really battling to recover at a time when the retail model is changing around it. And for the moment, I can’t see an easy way out of this reef.