Robert Atkins, the man who lead the turnaround of retail chain Harris Scarfe, has died at the age of 52 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Atkins most recent roll was as head of Retail Adventures, the business established by Kathmandu founder Jan Cameron to buy the assets of collapsed retail company Australian Discount Retail.
Atkins, who was a minority shareholder in Retail Adventures, left the company suddenly in October 2009.
He was a former president of Business South Australia and an executive with Castrol and Coca-Cola Amati.
But he was best known for turning around Adelaide-based department store chain Harris Scarfe, which almost collapsed in 2001 under the weight of falling profits and high debt levels.
Atkins ran the business for eight years, nurturing it back to health.
He told SmartComapny back in March 2009 that he was excited at the prospect of getting involved with Cameron’s business.
“I’d decided to move from stock standard CEO roles to more strategic board roles. I thought the investment opportunity was a great here, given the obvious value you can extract when you buy a business out of receivership.”
Atkins is survived by his wife and four sons.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
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