Duckwall investor unhappy with performance

Raymond French, chairman of Strongbow Capital, which owns 14.27% of Duckwall-ALCO Stores’ shares, making it the largest shareholder of the company, has sent a letter to the board of directors of Duckwall-ALCO regarding the company’s failure to meet its financial goals, Strongbow reported in an SEC filing last week.

In the letter, French told Duckwall-ALCO’s board that its company isn’t meeting the expectations it set for itself as part of the three-year turnaround plan it began almost three years ago. French added that, Strongbow believes that under Duckwall-ALCO’s current leadership, the company has fallen short of reaching its goal of a mid-teens percentage return on equity.

“For this reason, unless we see satisfactory concrete progress in the problem areas we have identified, and an acceptable improvement in the company’s twelve-month run-rate ROE, by the end of Q3 of this fiscal year, we may nominate a slate of directors for election to the board and make other proposals at that 2008 annual meeting,” French stated.