Almost four decades after starting as a salesman, with an Alfa Giulietta, at the diversified chemicals and explosives group AECI, CEO Mark Dytor will retire at the end of July, but is not ready to take it easy just yet.
“There’s no plan to go and sit in the sun down in Cape Town,” the 61-year-old told Business Day on Wednesday. “I’ve run a JSE business and I think there are international options for me. Also, if there are boards I can contribute to, there are opportunities there.”
Dytor was working underground at Rand Mines and considering becoming a mine captain or mining shift boss, but was having second thoughts about going 2km underground and squeezing through tight stopes and corners every day.
Feeling there “must be better things in this world”, he joined AECI in 1984 as a water treatment salesman, despite knowing little about sales. He worked on commission and lived in Vereeniging, south of Johannesburg.
“I went in there the first day and thought, ‘Oh, damn’,” he said. “My car allowance was more than the basic salary, so you had to go sell a helluva lot to survive.”
Eventually Dytor worked his way up in the company that employed about 1,000 people at the time to become the CEO in 2013 with a workforce of 7,500 across six continents.
During Dytor’s tenure, the profits of the company grew by 26.8% to R1.21bn, while its share price remained largely flat as it expanded its local and international footprint. This included the €110.5m (about R1.8bn at the time) acquisition of agrochemicals and fine chemicals company Schirm in 2017, its first big acquisition in Europe, and the so-called One AECI strategy that brought about 50 businesses under one brand, identity, values and culture over the past three to four years.
“People don’t like change generally, but I think what I have been able to do is bring people together, lead from the front and show them the benefit of this,” Dytor said. “If a customer sees this brand and this value system, this high-service solution company, they then associate it with all the other products and services we can offer.”
The diversified explosives and chemicals supplier was registered in 1924 as a result of the gold boom in SA. It has recently been cashing in on elevated commodity prices, and reported on Wednesday that revenue had climbed almost a third in its half year to end-June. It first listed on the JSE in 1966 and is now valued at R10.2bn on the local bourse.
The company said on Wednesday it is looking for a new CEO and is considering internal and external candidates, but Dytor said it will “take a long time” for someone from outside the industry to get to know AECI, its different businesses and the various industries in which it operates.
Dytor considers the way the company navigated the Covid-19 pandemic as one of his biggest challenges and successes in his career, but wishes the SA business environment was better.
“If we were elsewhere in the world, we would probably be a lot more rewarded in terms of share price, et cetera, but it’s just the SA economy, and the bad news that we keep on getting is just dragging the whole country down right now,” he said. “It’s just own goal after own goal after own goal.”
AECI said on Wednesday that elevated commodity prices helped revenue climb almost a third in its half year to end-June, but profit growth was more sedate, after the war in Ukraine severely hit demand for agrochemicals there and pushed up costs.
Group revenue rose 31% to a record R15.5bn to end-June, and headline profit 8.2% to R605m, with AECI also deciding not to write down its Schirm business, which has production sites in Germany, despite pressure from the conflict.
AECI has been cashing in as mining houses ramp up production to take advantage of booming prices. It achieved a record profit for its half year and upped its dividend 8% to 194c — about a R205m payout.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.