New owner cleans out senior managers at Spotless

Private Equity Partners (PEP), the new owners of international services company Spotless, have made a number of senior management changes since their acquisition.
With the new owners and new Chief Executive Bruce Dixon undertaking a restructuring of the company to refocus on service delivery to customers, high profile industry figures have now left the group.
Michael Givoni, Group General Manager and former head of Spotless' Tourism and Leisure group, has left the company along with National Development Manager Wendy Field; and Craig Lovett, Chief Executive and Managing Director of Spotless' London-based International Services business.
Rowan Wilkie, Spotless' former Group General Manager, Public Affairs took on Lovett's role as new General Manager International services on the eve of the London Paralympics, for which Spotless is the venue cleaning contractor while Geoff Barnsley is the new General Manager Services.
Best known for its venue, entertainment and sport cleaning work, Spotless group is also active in health, education, defence, government, retail, resources, commerce and industry.
Operating in 30 countries, with annual revenues of $2.8 billion, Spotless employs over 40,000 staff.
The management changes and restructuring are leading to significant numbers of staff leaving the now delisted business' head office in St Kilda Road, Melbourne.
In recent interviews with the Australian, new Chief Executive Bruce Dixon, who started in the job on 17th August, advised that functions had been restructured, stating that "changes being made ... are with the intention of refocusing our business and our investment around our clients and quality of service.
"This is a fabulous company with a great culture but it's not as profitable as it should be.
"It's extremely heavy in overheads, so it doesn't make the margin to reinvest in the business; the head office is just too fat."
Private equity giant PEP bought Spotless in August in a $723 million deal that took nine months to finalise. However, according to The Australian Financial Review (AFR), PEP has apparently been forced to make up a shortfall of at least $100 million in costs after miscalculating how much it would cost to run the company.
The AFR suggested that PEP made an error in calculating Spotless' working capital requirements, due in part to a delayed payment by one big customer and settlement of the deal on the day that Spotless pays its 40,000 employees.
In a statement, PEP refuted the claim, writing "(PEP) is fully satisfied and very comfortable with the funding structure and financing agreements it has in place.
"There has been no major deviation from our expectations and no change in equity commitments."
Since 2007, PEP has also owned the Hoyts cinema chain.