Treasury Wine chair John Mullen defends crowded board commitments
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
More news: Treasury Wine chair John Mullen said he is commitment to the winemaker is "absolute" after being quizzed about his other board roles at this morning's annual general meeting.
"I can assure you that I am devoting adequate time," he said.
"I can also assure you that my colleagues here wouldn't put up with me for five minutes of I wasn't. That will ultimately be the judgement."
Mullen, who also chairs the boards of Qantas and Brambles, was asked by Peter Aird from the Australian Shareholders' Association (ASA) how he will manage his workload.
"Honestly I have to say the company is going through an extremely difficult time," he said.
"We've got two brand new directors, we don't have a CEO, and the ASA thinks that it's a good time to recommend that we don't have a chairman as well. To me that is a triumph of box ticking over common sense."
Treasury Wine chair John Mullen says China sales to fall 'well below' forecasts
The news: Treasury Wine chairman John Mullen has warned that China sales are going to fall "well below" expectations for the 2026 financial year if current trends persist.
The context: Mullen said the company will pursue opportunities to re-allocate product to other markets, but will act "with caution" to ensure that it doesn't increase the risk of parallel imports into the China market.
The comments come after the winemaker withdrew its full-year earnings guidance on Monday, sending shares down 15%. The group is suffering from soft depletion trends in China and disruption caused by the change of distribution partner in California.
Mullen is set to face up to shareholders at Treasury Wine's annual general meeting, which kicks off at 10am AEDT today.
The source: ASX
