Rock of Ages Taps Urbach

CONCORD, N.H. – Rock of Ages Corp. named Rich Urbach, formerly regional vice president of retail operations and a 17-year veteran of the retail memorial industry, as president and COO of retail operations in early May.
Urbach succeeded Rick Wrabel, who left the memorial and stone-distribution company to pursue other opportunities. Rock of Ages also announced the resignations of Caryn Crump, senior vice president of marketing; Kevin Nohelty, vice president of retail operations; and Sean Weeks, regional vice president.
“Rick, Caryn, Kevin and Sean are highly skilled and experienced executives who joined us in 2004 from outside the industry to develop the right plan and build the right infrastructure to achieve our retail growth and profitability objectives,” Rock of Ages chairman/CEO Kurt Swenson said. “In addition to designing and implementing successful new marketing and branding programs, Rick and his team made changes which will reduce costs in our retail operations by approximately $5 million annually, and positioned the business to achieve the 15-percent retail-store level EBIT margin we have long targeted.
“We remain committed to this strategy and are confident that it will bring great rewards in the future,” Swenson added. “Rich Urbach’s thorough understanding of every facet of our retail operations and his long-standing and close personal relationships with other key executives within our company, as well as with our partners and customers throughout the industry, make him ideally suited to implement this next phase of our retail strategy.
“All of us at Rock of Ages are grateful for Rick, Caryn, Kevin and Sean’s hard work and positive contributions to our company, and we wish them continued success in the future.”
Swenson also said that Rock of Ages didn’t plan to replace the four executives, and will report a charge of approximately $1.4 million in the second quarter of 2006 related to these departures.
“We anticipate annualized savings of at least $1.5 million (in addition to the $5 million of savings already in place at the retail store level) which will begin to affect our results in the third quarter,” he noted.