By James Wells

MELBOURNE: Greg Ellery, the Asia Pacific vice president of Spectrum Brands – the local subsidiary for Remington, Varta and Rayovac branded products – has announced he will resign in December and will be replaced by current sales director, Paul Dryburgh.

Dryburgh will be appointed managing director of Spectrum Brands in Australia and New Zealand on 1 October. Ellery will continue in the role of vice-president Asia Pacific until the end of the year during the transition period. During this time, Dryburgh will report to Ellery. Following Ellery’s departure the role of vice president Asia Pacific will no longer be managed from the Melbourne office.

“We regret to announce that Greg Ellery has decided to leave the company due to personal reasons at the end of December 2007,” Spectrum Brands said in a statement today.

“We thank Greg for his significant contributions in leading Remington to its strong position in Australasia, the successful launch of Varta in this region and the leadership in the challenging Chinese and South East Asian markets.

“Paul joined Remington Australia in 1995 and has been as Sales Director an important contributor to the success of Remington and VARTA in Australasia. We are sure, that Paul is the ideal candidate to further strengthen the market position of Remington and VARTA and increase the profitability in the important Australasian market,” the statement said.

“The company is going through some reorganization activities. I plan to help them with that and then go and do something else. After six years in the industry, we have achieved a lot and I look forward to moving on to bigger and better things,” Ellery told Current.com.au this afternoon.

Ellery notified Remington management of his decision to leave the company in March this year and a replacement for Dryberg has not been announced at this stage.

“Paul is very well known and very popular,” said Ellery who remains unsure whether he will remain in the electrical industry.

“I haven’t been approached to stay in the industry, but I will if the right opportunity is there. It is 50-50 whether I will stay in Australia – I might move back into Asia and look at some private equity roles – at the moment it is all up in the air.”

“The company has been great to me and I am making sure that it is in the best shape possible. I leave the company with very fond memories – I am very proud of what we have done and what we have been able to achieve.

“It has been a very fulfilling time particularly as we were able to double the business and improve profitability dramatically after I moved back from Hong Kong with virtually no experience. It has been a great period of my life and I have enjoyed it a lot, and I have enjoyed the people that I have worked with at Remington.”