JEREMY SAMPSON: How Tiger bottled it
It’s unclear if the Enterprise brand will survive the listeriosis scandal. The board should take the heat if it doesn’t
There are many boards that contain directors who are highly numerate, yet have little or no knowledge of marketing or the technological world we live in. I was talking recently to a friend who has a strong marketing background and is a director of various JSE-listed companies. He told me how, in one consumer-goods company, the board pack of more than 100 pages contained not a single reference to "customers" or "brands". It’s a gaping hole, considering the spate of corporate "situations" in recent months — such as Eskom, Steinhoff and Capitec. Invariably, the CEO is left to respond, with the board nowhere to be seen. In the case of Steinhoff, it took weeks before the directors — some of whose stellar reputations are now shredded — emerged. So what about Tiger Brands? Obviously, it’s an evolving situation and listeriosis is a complex subject. But the fact appears to be that Enterprise Foods, a division of Tiger Brands that makes 6% of its revenue from ready-to-eat polony, sausages, vi...
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