What does selling loft insulation have in common with flogging boxes of cornflakes?
Not much, as it turns out. Last year Sheffield building products company SIG finally woke up to this fact. Chief executive Stuart Mitchell, a former Sainsbury’s veteran who had run SIG since 2013, was shown the door after a spell of dire trading.
SIG, the biggest supplier of insulation in Europe, had been brought low by a combination of weakening consumer confidence and self-inflicted problems, culminating in November’s profit warning.
Analysts point to an array of issues: trying to play hardball with suppliers such as cement giant Lafarge, and failing miserably; a loose and federated management structure that Mitchell inherited; and trying to roll out too many initiatives at once. The chill