Hearing-aid maker Sonova names Danaher's Kaldowski as new CEO (updated)
01/09/2017 09:07
* Danaher Corp exec to become CEO next year
* Top hearing aid maker could hit 4 bln Sfr sales within
decade
* Sonova seeks smooth transition after 2011 management chaos
(Adds sales target, details of management shakeup in 2011)
By John Miller
ZURICH, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Sonova SOON.S Chief Executive
Lukas Braunschweiler expects his newly named successor to boost
sales by two-thirds to 4 billion Swiss francs ($4.17 billion) in
a decade as the Swiss hearing aid maker gets a lift from new
products and a growing retail network.
Arnd Kaldowski, a 50-year-old German who has headed
U.S.-based Danaher Corp.'s DHR.N diagnostics business, was
named on Friday to become Sonova's chief operating officer in
October and is slated to replace Braunschweiler as CEO on April
1, 2018.
Since Braunschweiler's arrival in 2011, Sonova's annual
sales have grown 50 percent to 2.4 billion Swiss francs ($2.50
billion) as the company expanded its retail outlets through
acquisitions, including last year's nearly $1 billion purchase
of Netherlands-based AudioNova. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1II0P9
To get to 4 billion francs, Sonova is also banking on new
products including direct-streaming hearing aids meant to go
head-to-head with similar products from Danish rivals GN Store
Nord GN.CO , William Demant WDH.CO and Widex. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1L314H
Initial data on the new hearing aids was "very encouraging"
a week after the first U.S. shipments, he said.
"This company will grow to up to 4 billion, and it's great
to have a leader in place with fresh energy," Braunschweiler
said in an interview. "It's probably in the next seven-to-10
years time frame, depending on what the market is."
Shares in Sonova, which also makes cochlear implants, rose
0.9 percent by 0800 GMT and have gained 32 percent this year.
Kaldowski's gradual ascension to chief executive next year
is slated to be a methodical transfer of power, a sharp contrast
to the management shake-up at the world's biggest maker of
hearing aids when Sonova swapped out management in 2011 amid a
probe into executive share sales ahead of a profit warning.
CRISIS CONTROL
Then-Chairman Andy Rihs, whose family remains Sonova's
second-biggest shareholder, Chief Executive Valentin Chapero and
Chief Financial Officer Oliver Walker all stepped down, plunging
the company into a leadership crisis after it was already
reeling from a product recall.
Braunschweiler, a 61-year-old chemist, was quickly recruited
from Swiss aerospace and weapons group Ruag to steady the
company.
By contrast, Kaldowski will ease into his role, first taking
the reins of Sonova's hearing instruments, retail and cochlear
implants as well as research & development and supply chain this
October. He will assume responsibility for finance, investor
relations and communications seven months later.
"It's a result of a very thorough succession and transition
process planning, it is not by surprise," Braunschweiler said.
"It's a different transition than we had last time."
Kaldowski, a physicist by training, has overseen Danaher's
$5.5 billion diagnostics business whose units Radiometer, Leica
Biosystems and Cepheid compete with Swiss drugmaker Roche
ROG.S .
($1 = 0.9603 Swiss francs)
(Editing by Michael Shields)
((J.Miller@thomsonreuters.com; +41 58 306 7734; Reuters
Messaging: j.miller.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: SONOVA /CEO