Under-fire luxury interior furnishings company Sanderson Design Group (SDG) has lost Mauricio Solodujin, its Global Commercial director, just days ahead of a critical shareholder vote that will determine the fate of Board Chair Dame Diane Thompson (pictured).
In a message to his followers on LinkedIn, Solodujin, a former Senior Vice President at LVMH, declared himself “incredibly proud” of his achievements with SDG, adding that he was “excited” about the company’s future, despite a recent hostile action launched by the group’s largest shareholder. Thompson’s fate will be decided October 29, 2026.
The exact direction of Sanderson’s future is what’s driving the current dispute between LBV Asset Management and the Board led by Thompson, the former CEO of lottery operator Camelot. In a letter to shareholders sent in September, LBV decried SDG’s recent financial performance, noting its revenue had declined 11% since FY2022, with adjusted underlying profit before tax having fallen by 57% over the same period. LBV’s letter went on to note that SDG peers Colefax Group had increased revenue by 49% to SDG’s 6%. LBV would like to add entrepreneur Stephen Brooke to the board, and is asking for independent non-executive director Juliette Stacey to lead the search for a new board chair.
LBV’s notice to shareholders also noted the pay of current SDG chief executive Lisa Montague and Mike Woodcock, the current chief financial officer, was also above that of its peers relative to financial performance, suggesting a lack of alignment between the board and executive and the company’s shareholders. LBV’s letter also notes that the current executive and board team at SDG own negligible amounts of the company’s shares.
Executive pay has long been a criticism of SDG’s current management team. Former executives being contacted by reporters are now getting an earful of criticism of the current regime (although none are willing to go on the record), while the Financial Times-affiliated Investors Chronicle wrote about the potential misalignment of Montague’s compensation in 2024 (“When performance-related pay works against investors”) and revisited the theme in a recent update, noting Montague’s pay “seems high”.
Stung by the criticism, SDG threatened to sue LBV for defamation, despite not identifying any errors in the fund’s figures or analysis. For now, retail investors appear to agree with LBV, with the chat on platforms like www.advfn.com largely supporting the fund. It is unclear how or what percentage of retail investors will ultimately vote. Turnout at the most recent SDG annual general meeting was only 46% of the issued share capital. Institutional investors like Fidelity and Trinity Bridge are known to hold shares in SDG although neither firm has commented on the current dispute.
The comparisons made by LBV in a subsequent letter to Sanderson’s shareholders following the company’s half-year results are likely to give pause to investors. LBV noted a recent uptick in licensing revenue is not enough to mask the decline in the core brands offered by SDG.
Another bone of contention between LBV and the company is SDG’s corporate headquarters. While others in the luxury design space are camped in fashionable Chelsea Harbour, SDG chose to renovate Voysey House in Chiswick a few years back, with LBV noting that an entire floor of the building remained empty for “more than a year”, leaving shareholders on the hook for the empty space. A 2017 profile of Montague – then at Aspinal of London – noted that she and her journalist husband Simon lived in Chiswick, with a 2022 profile noting her favourite restaurant was Chiswick’s ‘La Trompette’.
Notably, LBV says they are not seeking any changes at the executive level. That said, they do argue that pay should come after performance, not before it. In a few days, investors will know if Sanderson Design Group is under new management.
