Book of Mormon marketing company loses FD

THEATRE MARKETING business Reach4Entertainment has announced its finance director is stepping down at the end of the month.

Shirley Stapleton steps down from R4E on 31 July. The company currently markets The Book of Mormon, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Judas Kiss in London. It also has operations in New York which trade under SpotCo and markets Vanya, Richard III, The Twelfth Night, Rocky and Soul Doctor.

Stapleton is a financial restructuring expert and used that experience for various dispositions and transitions at the company when she joined the company in April 2010 as interim FD.

She was previously FD of New York based theatre marketing business Pivot Entertainment; prior to that she had spent more than ten years in the airline industry which included senior roles at British Airways and Air New Zealand. Stapleton is a qualified accountant with a New Zealand institute.

Reach4Entertainment said that: “Given the work is now complete [in its finance division], it has been mutually agreed that it is an appropriate time for Ms Stapleton to depart.”

R4E added it has strengthened its finance team at group and subsidiary divisions to such a level that it had no plans to replace Stapleton.

Trading at the business is in line with market expectations for the six months ended 30 June 2013. However, its profit before tax increased to £0.2m from a loss of £2.95m the year before and EBITDA improved £1.64m, according to preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2012.