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Melbourne-based e-commerce company Articore Group (ASX: ATG), owner of the Redbubble and TeePublic marketplaces, has announced a major board shake-up prompted by CEO and co-founder Martin Hosking, who has left the embattled group again after returning to the leadership in 2023.
The board renewal for Articore, formerly known as Redbubble, has been led by what appears to be the forced resignation of two directors linked to The Star Entertainment Group (ASX: SGR) as the company leans on its core North American market to regain its mojo.
Articore chair Anne Ward and non-executive director Ben Heap – a former interim chair of The Star - have stepped down from the board effective immediately after Hosking and former chairman Richard Cawsey lent their support to a resolution by shareholders to have them removed.
Ward, the current chair of The Star, had been chair of Articore since 2018 while Heap had been a director since 2020. However, both Articore directors, along with fellow director Robin Low, were targeted last week by Cawsey and Hosking for removal.
As substantial shareholders, Cawsey and Hosking last Friday called for a special meeting of shareholders to have Ward, Heap and Low removed from the board after years of underperformance by the group.
The company says that, as a result, it accelerated its succession plans for the board and CEO.
Heap, who was appointed interim chair of The Star in the wake of a board exodus in 2023, took a two-month absence from the Articore board earlier this year to “attend to a personal matter”.
Heap is also among a swathe of former directors of The Star who are facing civil action by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission over alleged failures in overseeing junket operations at the casino group.
“The leadership changes announced today are the result of planned, deliberate reform, aligned with strategy and market realities,” says Articore.
“The board remains focused on delivery, performance, and long-term value creation.”
Hosking, who co-founded Redbubble with Peter Styles and Paul Vanzella in 2006, had been CEO of Articore since March 2023.
He was Redbubble’s executive chair when the company first listed on the ASX in 2006 and later became CEO until 2018, but he had always been a director of the group since inception.
Hosking will be replaced by Vivek Kumar, previously CEO of Marketplaces, who from today becomes Articore’s group CEO.
Kumar, who joined Articore in 2022 as CEO of TeePublic, was last year named CEO of Marketplaces. The company says in that role Kumar has been responsible for delivering revenue and margin growth at TeePublic while driving “material synergies and efficiencies” through the unification of the group's two businesses.
“As a result, Martin Hosking will leave the company immediately,” says Articore.
Meanwhile, Ward has been replaced as chair by US-based director Robin Mendelson, who has been with Articore since July last year after a 20-year stint with e-commerce giant Amazon.
Articore, which suffered a major downturn in its business in the latest half-year, says the new leadership positions are aimed at leveraging the group’s strength in North America which generates more than 75 per cent of group revenue.
Mendelson, is described by the company as a highly experienced senior executive with “a proven track record of building, scaling and transforming complex technology businesses”.
“As CEO of Amazon’s US Media Consumer Group, Ms Mendelson delivered multi-year revenue and earnings growth across the multibillion-dollar division through customer-focused innovation, product development, supply chain optimisation and continuous operational improvements,” says the company.
“Her appointment reflects the board’s longstanding commitment to the immediate and long-term sustainability and success of the company, and its intention to align senior leadership with growth priorities.”
Articore, which operates Redbubble.com and TeePublic.com where artists can sell designs on various products, suffered a 12 per cent fall in revenue from its key marketplaces to $230.4 million in the first half of FY25.
The company has blamed weak consumer sentiment and a deterioration in organic traffic to its Redbubble marketplace for the result.
However, the latest interim result is among a series of weak profit performances over the past three years for the group.
Shares in Articore were trading at 15c, up o.5c, at 11.47am today following the board renewal announcement.
However, the shares are well down from a record high close of $7.04 in January 2021. The shares have been in an extended bearish trend since then.
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