Quebecor World Q1 Loss

“This large undertaking created temporary inefficiencies, but we fully expect that this pain will deliver significant gains for our customers and shareholders in the near future and long term”

Quebecor World Inc. , Montreal, reported a $38.1-million Q1 loss due to restructuring, asset write downs, facility closures and equipment relocation. via Graphic Arts Monthly

[The Quack CEO Watch]

Quebecor is absolutely insane in hiring Wes Lucas as their CEO. If they investigated what that man did at his previous employer, Sun Chemical, they would all be shaking and staining their underwear. This guy comes in with all of the slogans and collections of cliches and all he does is brings in his cronies and friends who go from job to job and leave an absolute mess. In Sun Chemical, he inherited the best company in the ink business in the world, the undisputed leader and he left it in rubbles and all of the people he left behind have continued to bash and trash all the existing science and technology employees and now Sun Chemical sports the lowest morale that it has ever had with no direction. Lucas was unceremoniously fired from Sun Chemical and somehow he ended up at Quebecor. WHAT A MISTAKE! It is all artificial. He starts slashings costs without regards to future and he has not a clue of what is important in technology companies. GOODBYE QUEBECOR! You might see improvements in profits here and there but get prepared for a huge disaster 2 or 3 years down the road as you have a Tsunami inside you now. The king of phonies. Steals all the slogans from the bestseller list of New York Times and then has posters made up. The tragedy is that Sun Chemical, being a private company, does not have to open its books to anyone and the calamity of Lucas & the Lucas Gang management has not quite arrived yet.

[Mirror]

How could a person like him, Wes Lucas, get appointed President of QW. His experience is based on bluff together with his voodooh team. The mess he left back at SunChemical, after he was fired, indicates the future development in QW.
The 1. Qt. 2007 results are below 2006 and until today not the success Wes Lucas promisses for the future.

[Downsized by Wes]

I can hardly believe that I am in such good company. Wes Lucas is without doubt the biggest loser there is in the CEO world. I was a product of his downsizing in Sun Chemical. I had a career of 22 years and now find myself unemployed and losing everything I have, just like Sun Chemical lost all the business I brought to them because of this smelly piece of increment. He has the same stupid pitch everywhere he goes. "Six Sigma!, 5s!, blah, blah, blah", I wish he would just go away and stfu, leaving people and companies to do what they do best without his horsesh*t "pitch" to rake in barrelloads of cash from unsuspecting morons who hire the loser.

[mike]

I worked for sun chemical for 22 lovely years but the last 5 were marred by the wes lucas management. You know beforew wes and the gang joined Sun they had 4 years wrecking 22 ALLIED CHEMICAL which now is just about recovering from Six Sigma and many New York consulting firms telling us all how to do our jobs . I am pleased to be out of it but it was a rape of a fantastic company and they should all be ashamed of what they did

[Edward]

I watched this company for a long time and it was a wonderful undisputed world leader. The owner JAPANESE of Dainippon Ink & Chemicals are totally crazy in giving the keys to their house to this bunch that came in there. And there is a group there now that has actually gone beyond and made matters worse. This company has been put in real jeopardy. MORAL IS DOWN BELOW... Moral is 6 feet under or worse. Employees have taken to call Human Resources, the InHuman Resources Department.
http://www.inkworldmagazine.com/articles/2002...
Destruction has been perpetrated and a few outsiders that Wes Lucas brought in trashed the whole professional staff to pieces... total disregard for common sense and awful crap. Just read the press releases for Sun and then for Quebecor is the same bla bla bla... and it goes on around the World. See this and you will read more lies in one minute than anyone has been told in a lifetime:
In Brazil in the flagship product of Heatset Inks, Sun Chemical is now with a market share of 10 percent while the company had a profitable 80 share before Wes Lucas moved in with his cronies and all the schemes to pocket money based on cutting the braintrust of the organization.
The guy and the people he brought in made rubbles out of a city of marble. It is like the USA troubles with hurricanes, FEMA, etc. All the incompetents moved in with the same rah rah rah, 6 sigma, winning with execution, speed and execution. PURE MAJOR CRAP ... the same crap that Lennin and Stalin and all of those people sold to the Russians back in 1917.
Goodbye Quebecor if you were so foolish that you did not check this guy out.
http://www.inkworldmagazine.com/articles/2002...

[Michael]

It's high time the truth of the Lucas (&cronies) situation was aired. Like many others I spent the greater part of my professional career with Sun striving to further the company’s image and profits.

I too ended up with a kick in the rear and have lost most of what I had strived to achieve.

Thank you Wes

[Casey]

Still happening at Sun with the crazy female shoving 6s into everything. Projects and customer response are at a standstill while all the forms are filled out. Despite commenting about customer focus, everything is really internal focus and to hell with everything else. Classic short term profits, Harvard MBA. Anyone read the book "Snakes in Suits"? As stated by another....Thanks Wes!

[P_M_W]

I witnessed it,Wes came in and made a GREAT company terrible.Sun Chemical had some great people there and were proud to work there.Now it is a shell of a company.

[AMEN Brother]

The people writing these threads are right on track. Having worked for these guys for many years, it is amazing to see what has happened to a once proud company.

The Quack CEO Watch wrote:

Quebecor is absolutely insane in hiring Wes Lucas as their CEO. If they investigated what that man did at his previous employer, Sun Chemical, they would all be shaking and staining their underwear. This guy comes in with all of the slogans and collections of cliches and all he does is brings in his cronies and friends who go from job to job and leave an absolute mess. In Sun Chemical, he inherited the best company in the ink business in the world, the undisputed leader and he left it in rubbles and all of the people he left behind have continued to bash and trash all the existing science and technology employees and now Sun Chemical sports the lowest morale that it has ever had with no direction. Lucas was unceremoniously fired from Sun Chemical and somehow he ended up at Quebecor. WHAT A MISTAKE! It is all artificial. He starts slashings costs without regards to future and he has not a clue of what is important in technology companies. GOODBYE QUEBECOR! You might see improvements in profits here and there but get prepared for a huge disaster 2 or 3 years down the road as you have a Tsunami inside you now. The king of phonies. Steals all the slogans from the bestseller list of New York Times and then has posters made up. The tragedy is that Sun Chemical, being a private company, does not have to open its books to anyone and the calamity of Lucas & the Lucas Gang management has not quite arrived yet.

[Inking and Printing]

Quebecor did not check Mr. Lucas work at Sun properly and the fact that he was terminated in great hurry and Quebecor will pay dearly for it. Young and inexperienced in the print industry and much traveled with his gang of cronies, Lucas did not care that to run a printing technology company there was a need for scientists and technical people and industry professionals. At Sun he trashed anyone that was too good at what they did in favor of some crony of his he knew from other several companies where these bands of nomadic resume builders travel frequently.
He seemed to have one main interest and that was NOT improving Sun but improving his personal resume. He installed a philosophy at Sun Chemical predicated on slogans sand castles by cooking pretty financial reports and political rallies with phoney baloney cliches. Real childish crap. Almost like Hitler Youth rallies. And under him the Human Resources department seemed to become InHuman, someone said that Sun's Human Resources had become a division of Fascism Incorporated. They specialized in thrashing and humiliating long time employees in ways never before seeing in this company.
And with their companies overseas it has been even worse. Older employees with many years of service and employees who become seriously ill are abandoned and treated with great contempt rather than treated with compassion as in the Sun Chemical of old. One company superstar who elected to go elsewhere rather than take the abuse: it seems that they almost want to climb on top of your head and want to defecate on you and particularly if you know too much about the business they resent it and hate it when you speak up. If you speak up, you are dead, kind of like another Sopranos in New Jersey.
While Lucas was fired and inexplicably immediately hired by Quebecor (did they check references properly?), at Sun he left a seed for destruction that germinated and today continues and has grown into a forest of contempt and putrid morale. His people are still running Sun. And that is what QUEBECOR has to look forward to. Even after he is gone, the effects will continue for a long time.
Sure that the manipulations and closings of plants will cause the stock price of Quebecor to go up and down but, make no mistake, the whole thing is rotten at the core because how can someone who does not care for people be a leader of people. How can you lead me if you do not care for me?

[John]

Just lost my job in Vancouver, B.C. with Quebecor World due to Wes Lucas's vision for a better company. Our plant was in operation for 52 years and had made budget for the year in only 3 months. They sold the building as a cash grab and then tried to merger us with there other plant in the area, but they wanted to cut back everything we had so now we hit the streets because we said NO! What a waste of a great place to work. I will miss the people but not Quebecor!!!!

[Billy Bagcarrier]

So Wes Lucas takes the Quebecor share price from C$17.25 to $1.89 - stunning performance. Looks like the comments about Sun Chemical were correct and he has now ruined QW. Can the 5 Key initiatives take a company from great to ruination. How does he keep his job?

[Big John]

I experienced the Lucas implosion first hand. After spending 36 years at company that eventually became Quebecor, the Chicago Division was closed last year. I spent a short time at another division with the prospect of re-locating my family, but when promises concerning relocation assistance began to fall apart, I looked for and found employment in Chicago, and gave notice to QW, who promptly decided that my decision to leave, which was fueled by their broken promises, was cause to withhold my severance pay. I'm sorry to see all the people I worked with in various QW locations suffering from the current state of affairs. But take hope my friends, there is life after QW, and it's better. What goes around comes around and QW is finally getting theirs. To the VP of HR, hope you get treated better than I did.

[Maintenance Clarksviile]

Where did the money go ?
Our plant is running great, better than ever.
If we can't make money now, I don't know if it can
get better. If you take away the cost of the MANS'
then we are ok. You can't keep running on just 20 year old presses.
Was the cost for the new MAN presses included.
Were people thinking even after spending 100's of millions on these presses, we would still have the same bottom line. It will take 3 to 5 years from the upgrade to get back where we were, after spending money like that.
But after that we should do better that the printers that did not upgrade. You get hurt now or killed later. The main problem is the mortgage mess
thats why credit is hard to get and being in the red hurts. We are still the best printer out there.
We are going to see more company's have this happen. Mr.Lucas is not liked at Sun Chemical, I can see that. But that is not in our power to change if you work in a plant. I person said it right (There is life after Quebecor and it's better). Quebecor is just a JOB that's all.
Enjoy life every chance you get.
I know it's hard for me to the worrying everytime we make the news now because of the stock.
But I will keep trying.

[1inkie]

Mr. Lucas should be called the hatchet Man. He truly has continued to destroy this industry and his track record speaks for itself.

One would ask if this is another ENRON

Mr. Lucas
What is the plan??

[Lifer]

As a 30+year employee of what has become Quebecor-World, I would like to tell Wes Lucas and his highly trained staff just how much I appreciate the $75,000 hit my retirement had to take this year. I'm sure it will bother their conscience greatly as they cash their huge bonus checks this Christmas. God knows that they deserve a bonus of up to 3 times their salary for doing such a fine job as this. Don't you all agree??
It's hard for me to accept the level of incompetence of the CEO, and the rest of the micro-managers in Montreal. I can't believe that PK would allow Wes to continue his madness, or maybe PK decided to hire a fall guy to take the blame for his own stupidity in the past.
If PK really is interested in making the stock price go back up, he should get rid of Lucas, Blair, Cuilliere, Dennison, etc. and replace them with someone that knows something about the printing industry.

[Tom]

The following is directly from Bloomberg Investment sheet of yesterday, December 13, 2007:

"Quebecor World dropped or 17 percent, to US$1.70 at 4:10 p.m. New York time in Toronto Stock Exchange trading. The company has fallen 86 percent this year."

86 percent decline on the price of the stock during the Wes Lucas reign at Quebecor after he was asked to resign from Sun Chemical.

It would be interesting to check the price of the stock at Sun Chemical (the only other printing industry company where Lucas and his clan worked at) on a before and after Lucas effect but Sun Chemical is a private company and part of Japan's Dainippon Ink and Chemicals.

[Printer]

Not all is Lucas'making. Quebecor was in trouble before. Management engaged the company in a market share battle against Donnelly. They both bled as market share became more important than profits.
Also, the oversease management at Quebecor, in particular the top guy in Buenos Aires( G. Trahan) had his wife receiving an artists' salary from his 98%% ink supplier( The Flint subsidary in Argentina); he also had a wonderful setup with the Brazilean sub of Flint

Lucas continued the plan at Quebecor as he had learned from the best company killer( H. Dyner at Sun)another market share above profits.

Both Sun( under Dyner)and Flint, fought over the priviledge of selling -at a loss- to both Donnelly and Quebecor. They killed their companies.

Results: Flint got bought out by a company 3 times smaller and the Japs got rid of Dyner, who "recommended" Lucas at Sun. Dyner was kept on a huge "retainer" as consultant for Sun. A tit- for- a- tat?

[fear of my job]

WOW looks like he is at it in QW as well!

[its all gone]

the old pressroom in memphis was shut down over 100 lost their jobs ,,,, thanx wes