That same Friday, Al Dunlap announced that he had fired Donald Uzzi, the company’s executive president for consumer products, who had been brought in as a key member of Dunlap’s new turnaround teamfor Sunbeam. Uzzi was replaced by Lee Griffith, former vice president of sales; Griffith was given the title of president of Sunbeam’s household products division. Dunlap indicated that the company was looking for another executive to serve as president of its outdoor leisure business, which included the new Coleman-brand products. In the meantime, Dunlap said that Russell Kersh, his longtime lieutenant in prior turnarounds and currently Sunbeam’s chief financial officer, would became Coleman’s acting CEO
In a conference call to discuss the company’s situation with analysts, Al Dunlap said that the plunge in the price of the company’s shares was “nonsense.” He indicated that the unexpectedly low sales were an anomaly caused by retailers demanding unaccept ably low prices on seasonal products. Sunbeam refused to cut prices because, in Dunlap’s words, ‘We are not going to damage our brands.” Kersh said that the company did not intend to mislead analysts in its earlier March 19 announcement but that the company had overestimated demand from retailers.