A financial-consulting firm recently hired by truckload carrier Cannon Express has taken over day-to-day management of the company.
CFOex, a financial-services firm made up of former trucking CEOs and CFOs, has assumed the duties of CEO and COO at Cannon Express. As a result, the company's owner, Dean Cannon, has resigned his position as president and CEO and his wife Rose Marie Cannon has resigned her position as secretary and treasurer.
In addition to daily management responsibilities, CFOex said it plans to pursue financial and strategic alternatives for the benefit of shareholders. Bruce Jones, founder and president of CFOex, becomes the carrier's interim CEO and Calvin Turner becomes interim COO. Dean Cannon will continue to serve as chairman, while Rose Marie Cannon remains as a director on the carrier's board.
Springdale, AR-based Cannon Express, which operates a fleet of 775 trucks and 1,450 trailers, has gone through an extremely rough stretch of late in terms of its fiscal health.
For its third fiscal quarter, Cannon lost more than $2.37 million on revenues of $18.5 million, compared to losses of just $795,777 on revenues of $20.8 million in the same period last year. Losses for the first nine months of fiscal 2002 totaled $6.95 million on revenues of $60 million, compared to losses of $3.11 million on revenues of $63.9 million last year.
Dean Cannon said earlier this year that much of those losses have resulted from a soft freight market and a shortage of qualified drivers. In March, he laid off 50 employees and decided to forgo his salary and that of his wife for the remainder of 2002.