Oliver’s founder and former CEO takes up mantle again

Less than a year after exiting Oliver’s Real Food, Jason Gunn is once again chief executive and an executive director on the board of the company he founded.

The decision follows the departure of Gunn’s replacement, Greg Madigan, who resigned earlier this month after ten months in the role.

The news drove up the business’s share price from 0.022 cents per share to 0.029 cents per share, a 31.8 per cent increase.

The announcement was part of a broader leadership change that saw Nicholas Downer named chairman and non-executive director, Steven Metter named company secretary and non-executive director and Amanda Robson Gunn named operations manager and executive director.

Downer said to shareholders that the brand’s head office had become bloated, and was no longer focused on performance at the cash register.

After investigating the business’s expenditure, the incoming board found a weekly cash burn rate of approximately $100,000, as well as a number of fees related to consultants and advisors which have now been ceased.

“The focus of the board and management will be to return calm and confidence to our employees, a relentless focus on implementing [our] cost savings…, returning the business to the successful formulae from it’s pre-IPO stage, all designed to increasing turnover and profits, and rebuilding shareholder value,” the chairman said in his address to shareholders.

According to Downer, Gunn returns to the business “invigorated, relaxed and ready for this challenge.”

“As founder and creator, Jason is undoubtedly the right person to drive the business through this turnaround process, as he did while Oliver’s grew at the rate it did over the last 10 years,” Downer said in a note to investors.

The changes come after Oliver’s suffered a difficult holiday period, having dropped its expectations for the remainder of the year to an EBITDA loss of between $1 and $4 million.