Laser Corporation CEO Chris Lau has explained, why the hiring of musical chairs couple Alister Shakes and Michael Tomkins was a big mistake, his comments are remarkably similar to what their former boss at The Crest Company claimed before the pair quit the Brisbane based distributor.
Both Shakes and Tomkins who took on new roles, their third in three years at Melbourne based Directed have been accused of “Hawking their services to the highest bidder” according to one retailer.
According to Lau Tomkins “management style did not fit in with Laser” ..as for Shakes and Tomkins Lau said “Their way of doing business was not our approach and this did not sit well with Laser” he said.
Chris Lau Laser CEO
The comments are similar to what Michael Edgson the CEO of The Crest Company said back in 2020 when the pair quit The Crest Company to hawk their services in the private label market to Laser.
“When we first engaged with Tomkins, he introduced the concept of hiring Shakes” Lau said.
This led to threats of legal action with The Crest Company management claiming the pair were in breach of their employment contracts.
According to Lau who has since hired former Myer executive, Paul Malcolm as General Manager, Private Label, International Business Development & Special Buys the move to expand their Private Buying operation which they recently moved into several foreign markets sent the Company on a “Steep learning curve”.
Michael Tomkins
Alister Shakes
“We did learn a lot about private label sourcing during the past few years, this has led to the expansion of our China operation and our expansion overseas markets as well as working with major retailers in Australia” said Lau.
Domestically Laser Corporation works with some of the biggest retailers in Australia including The Good Guys who have recently committed to an expansion of their Connected Home product range, Big W, Harvey Norman JB Hi Fi and several other leading retailers.
“In the end the way that Tomkins and Shakes operated was not the way we do things. We like to work closely with our retail customers and in the end, we parted Company”. Said Lau.
A senior executive at a major retailer who sells Laser products said “Irrelevant of what Tomkins and Shakes are claiming we are big enough to work out for ourselves who we deal with. Both Crest and Laser have been around a long time and they are good at what they do. Remember you are only as good as the next big product or the core products you sell and both Crest and Laser have been delivering products for retailers for a long time”.
“Directed Electronics have also done a good job sourcing products for retailers”.
