Lake Forest-based Cooper Cos. has seen shipping delays, sluggish contact lens sales, buyout speculation and delays with a key product.
The latest chapter for the contact lens maker: Its veteran chief executive plans to leave his post by the end of the year.
Last week, Cooper said A. Thomas Bender, who rose to the top in 1995, is stepping down. He’s set to have a continuing role at the company.
“It’s time for new management to step in,” Bender said. “It’s philosophical with me. I think a CEO can stay on a long time, but if you’re not a founder, typically the rules are five years is enough. I certainly have been here a lot longer than that.”
Bender said he’s “going to stay active in the company, but in a different role.”
Who will replace Bender as chief executive isn’t certain. One thing is clear: the next chief will be based out of Cooper’s Pleasanton offices, rather than Lake Forest, according to Bender.
That raises questions about whether Cooper, with a market value of $2 billion last week, will be an Orange County-based company anymore.
In Securities and Exchange Commission filings, it lists Pleasanton as its address. The company’s actual headquarters has been in Lake Forest, where Bender and other top officials were based.
Cooper now has about 35 workers in Lake Forest. That stands to shrink to about 10 people, Bender said.
The company’s board is working on a succession plan and said it will look to internal and external candidates.
One analyst thinks Cooper could have someone in mind.
“We noticed that the chief operating officer, Bob Weiss, provided the commentary in the release, in contrast to previous press releases where the CEO, Tom Bender, provided the commentary,” said Larry Biegelsen, an analyst with Prudential Equity Group, in a note.
“Based on the change in the press release commentary, we think Mr. Weiss will likely be the next CEO and that an announcement may occur in the next quarter or so,” Biegelsen said.
Weiss is the internal candidate, Bender said, “but he may not be the CEO.”
“That is the decision the board will make by the end of the year,” he said. “They are looking externally as well. We will see where the board falls.”
No Surprise
It’s no surprise to many that Bender’s stepping down.
“Part of it is age,you know, I am 68 years old. I have grandchildren and there (are) other priorities in life,” Bender said. “It’s just time.”
Bender said he’s been planning to step down for a couple of years.
Weiss, who is 60, has been with the company since 1977. He’s recently taken over as president of the CooperVision Inc. contact lens unit. Gregory Fryling is leaving the job to pursue other opportunities.
Steven Neil, currently vice president and chief financial officer, was named executive vice president and chief financial officer.
Also on tap: a restructuring of its CooperVision unit in Pleasanton.
The company said it’s combining CooperVision and its headquarters operations.
“Since we closed the Huntington Beach (manufacturing) operation and moved that to Rochester back about a year and a half ago, we haven’t had much of a presence in Orange County, to be honest with you,” Bender said.
Cooper is planning to stay on the first floor of its Bake Parkway office building and sublet the second floor, he said.
Bender, a stylish, outspoken sort who worked at Irvine drug maker Allergan Inc. from 1966 to 1991 before joining Cooper, led the company through a spurt of fast growth in the late 1990s and earlier this decade.
His accomplishments include spearheading the $1.2 billion buy of rival Ocular Sciences Inc. in 2005, along with 23 deals to build up Cooper’s women’s surgical instrument business.
“We’ve taken a company that was a wannabe player in the contact lens (market) to the No. 3 position,” Bender said.
But the company’s vision has been blurred for the better part of the past two years.
Shipping delays, sluggish contact lens sales and a critical delay in coming out with silicone hydrogel lenses, which already are being sold by rivals Johnson & Johnson, Novartis AG’s Ciba unit and Bausch & Lomb Inc., plagued the lens maker.
“I would have stepped down before if I didn’t feel that we didn’t have what I would call some of the issues behind us. The issues are behind us, and as far as I’m concerned, certainly by the end of the year is the perfect time for me to turn the reins over to a new CEO,” Bender said.
Cooper’s also been the subject of buyout talk.
Earlier this year, a French investment bank and magazine reported that France’s Essilor International SA could be looking to buy Cooper for $2.7 billion.
