Hanesbrands Inc. (NYSE: HBI) Chairman and CEO Richard A. Noll will give up his chief executive title on October 1, 2016. The current chief operating officer, Gerald W. Evans Jr., will assume CEO duties on that date.
Evans has been appointed to the company’s expanded board of directors, now numbering 11. Noll will remain as executive chairman of the board.
Hanes was spun out of Sara Lee in the summer of 2006 in a tax-free distribution to Sara Lee shareholders. Sara Lee also saddled the underwear maker with a dividend payment of a tidy $2.4 billion, for which Hanesbrands had to borrow $2.6 billion at junk-bond interest rates. Both Noll and Evans have been with Hanes/Sara Lee for at least 30 years.
Noll has been CEO at Hanesbrands since 2006 and chairman since 2009, and he deserves substantial credit for steering the company through its early days. Hanes fired thousands of workers, mostly outside the United States, and the company did not pay a dividend until the second quarter of 2013.
The change at the top of Hanes was part of the company’s leadership succession plan and has been approved by the company’s board. Lead director Ronald L. Nelson said:
Each board member has the utmost respect for Rich Noll and Gerald Evans as accomplished leaders of this company. Under Rich’s leadership, the company has increased its annual sales from $4 billion to $6 billion, grown EPS at a compounded rate of 20 percent per year, and quintupled shareholder value from $2 billion to $10 billion. We are grateful for Rich’s decade of leadership and success, and we are thrilled to have such a capable leader as Gerald to build the business even further.
Hanesbrands stock traded down about 1.3% Monday morning, at $26.50 in a 52-week range of $23.25 to $34.78.
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