Royal Group under fire from shareholders

Higher executive compensation packages and lowered earnings forecasts have raised the ire of shareholders of building products giant Royal Group Technologies Ltd. The company responded to complaints from some shareholders and independent directors by creating an executive compensation committee and a corporate governance committee.
The compensation committee will review all executive pay last year, including a reported $5.6-million bonus to CEO Vic De Zen.
Royal Group also announced mid-February a lower quarterly profit than the previous year and warned fiscal 2003 earnings would be less than forecast. Poor performance in the Window Coverings Division bears most of the blame for the reduced earnings.
According to Royal Group president Douglas Dunsmuir, the company is implementing "cost cutting measures, product consildation, product line rationalization" and introducing new programs to turn around the window coverings business.
Plant consolidations of both custom profile and window covering operations are also underway; Royal operated with capacity utilization in the mid 60% range during 2002.