William Drozdowski has been appointed interim chief financial officer of Hampshire Group Ltd. following the termination earlier this month of Trey Darwin as cfo and treasurer.
Drozdowski’s appointment is a result of an agreement between his employer, GRL Capital Advisors, and Hampshire. GRL’s client base consists of companies in the retail, wholesale, manufacturing and distribution industries.
Prior to joining GRL in 2006, Drozdowski was financial controller of Urban Brands Inc., which operates the Ashley Stewart retail chain and Web site. Earlier in his career he was director of finance at Petrie Retail Inc. and controller of Petrie Stores Corp.
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“Bill’s strong background in a broad range of financial management, analysis and turnaround functions makes him a perfect fit to take over leadership of our financial organization for the near term while we seek a permanent cfo,” said Paul Buxbaum, chief executive officer of New York-based Hampshire.
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Since Darwin’s terminantion on March 2, Hampshire’s finances had been overseen by Buxbaum and David Price, chief operating officer.
On the day of Darwin’s firing, Bobby Melnick resigned as a director of Hampshire. He was a member of the audit, compensation and nominating committees of Hampshire’s board. In a Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Melnick provided a statement through an e-mail to be included in the filing saying the he “resigned stemming from disagreements with the company’s operations, policies and practices.”
Frank Tworecke resigned his position on the board on Feb. 24 and said he wanted to devote more time to personal business interests and had not relinquished his director’s position due to any disagreement with the company.
In preliminary financial results released on Feb. 17, Hampshire projected that its net loss for the full year ended Dec. 31 would amount to between $11 million and $12 million versus a $16 million net loss in 2013. Sales are expected to fall to between $28 million and $30 million from $35 million in the prior year.
Buxbaum said that events in the fourth quarter “significantly depressed” fourth-quarter results, including a series of mid-December cancellations and the need to make greater use of air freight to compensate for late deliveries from a key fabric supplier of Hampshire’s Rio Garment business.