He is due to leave the company at the end of May to head up worldwide markeing at industrial power tools company Dynabrade.
He said that his decision had nothing to do with the state of the company. “I’ve been living out of a suitcase for 25 years,” he told Hoist magazine. “I have travelled for half of my marriage. I’m in my mid-50s, and it’s the right move. They say that you work for the first half of your career for money, and the second half for significance – this will give us a chance to enjoy each other. It is s strictly a personal decision.”
Librock has been at CM for 16 years. “”I wouldn’t have done this three-four years ago when the business and the industry were in a tough shape. The industry is high, we are cooking on all cylinders, and everything seems to be lining up perfectly.”
The company has just begun the execution phase of a five and 10 year strategic plan that the management team worked on all last year. Goals include growing North American market share, and expanding the presence of the sales and marketing in North America, and outside, particularly in Brazil, Mexico, in China – where CM has four plants – and in Europe.
He says that when he joined the company in 1990, the biggest competitors were Yale, Lift-Tech and Coffing – now all owned by CM.
“I have no regrets – it has been a wonderful experience,” he said. “It had a turnover of $125m then, and $600m now. The company went public, we acquired lots of businesses, we sold some too. It was like getting an MBA every year.”
Since then, other companies have risen up. “Kito/Harrington has done a nice job. Demag continues to be a strong competitor. Some of the smaller manufacturers in Europe that came to the US and did a fairly good job when the currency was in their favour have now fallen away. Acco and some others in North America have maintained business but have not grown.”
He said that CM’s identity is as a distributor-friendly company. “A lot of competitors continue to waffle. We are 100% committed to industrial distribution.”
His replacement will be the third new face in the board of directors in a little more than a year. VP and chief operations officer (COO) Derwin Gilbreath joined in February 2005. Karen Howard stepped up to become CFO when the previous CFO and VP-finance Robert Friedl left in August (to be replaced by Karen Howard).
The changes at the top of CM don’t suggest a mass exodus from the company, Librock said. “It is normal attrition due to retirement or people wanting to simplify their lives.”
“We hope to have someone in before I go. There are a number of possibilities, a couple internal, a couple external,” he said.
