MUMBAI, Oct 28: In a move that caught everybody, including its employees, by surprise, the VST board today announced the exit of managing director Malcolm Fry, paving the way for Rayomond S Noronha, who was looking after the BAT operations in Mauritius till recently.Simultaneously, S Thirumalai, director, finance, takes over as deputy managing director of the company with immediate effect. The board which met here to take on record the H1 results of the company, announced that the 48-year-old Noronha, who was heading the Surya Tobacco of Nepal prior to his Mauritius stint, takes over on November 1.The move comes as a surprise considering the ambitious plans he had mooted for the revival of the ailing cigarette major from Hyderabad. Perhaps some of these very plans, such as the hiving off of prime assets of the company amounting to nearly Rs 50 crore, could be the reasons for the exit, corporate circles in the city felt.Fry, who had taken over the reins at VST two years back from former MD Raj Sujanhad also initiated new and aggressive marketing strategies for the relaunch of Charms Blues and Charminar which were facing a dwindling market share in the past few months.During his tenure at VST, which was considered by some to be a punishment posting by some in the wake of the BAT-ITC debacle, had launched Blues Filter, with encouraging results from the company's strongholds in the East and North East India. The relaunch of Charms and Charminar in new packs had led to an increase in volumes.For the first six month period ending September 30, 1998, VST has posted a growth of 14 per cent in the sales to Rs 350.80 crore from Rs 307.55 crore in the corresponding period in the last year. It had reported a net profit of Rs 3.91 crore, a little over the first half year in the previous year amounting to Rs 3.76 crore.While the company posted operating profit of Rs 17.47 crore, due to heavy interest burden of Rs 10.63 crore (Rs 9.81 crore for the corresponding period in the last year), it has registered agross profit of Rs 6.84 crore. Interestingly, VST had reported a gross loss of Rs 11.17 crore in the corresponding period in the previous year.In a statement, the outgoing MD Fry said: "VST continues to recover operationally as a result of the overall strategies initiated by the company during the last year. This, despite the sluggish economic environment in the recent past and very high increases in excise, particularly at the bottom end of the cigarette market."
