Top 5 officials quit Subhiksha

CHENNAI: Subhiksha Trading Services, the city-based retail chain, on Wednesday said five top executives have quit the firm, which has not paid salaries to its staff for the last four months. The exit of Subhiksha's senior president Atul Joshi, Sunil Kataria, Mrinal Roy, Ashu Phakey and V Raviganesh, presidents in charge of various regions, dealt another blow to the retailer after the trouble started brewing at the company over the past few months.
"They have left over the last 45 days.We had the best management team in the country in retail. Given the difficult situation some have decided to move on for better opportunities. None of these people were from retail and we recruited from outside retail and we are sure that we would get similar high quality talent when we are ready to resume," Subhiksha MD R Subramanian, who is on fire-fighting mode, told The Times of India in a reply to an e-mail.
"It is a matter of great satisfaction that they continued to fight for the company for over three-four months despite the pain around them including non receipt of their own salaries," he said.
Interestingly, it were these same people who had taken forward the Subhiksha growth story when the retail chain was looking at expanding across the country.
The Employees Provident Fund Office (EPFO) in Chennai adjourned the hearing on non-payment of PF dues by Subhiksha to February 19. The EPFO office maintains that Subhiksha has to pay up arrears to the tune of Rs 5 crore, even as Subramanian denies, saying that the dues were much lower.
"Without going into specifics we can only say that the figures stated to you are grossly wrong and further we are co-operating with the authorities in every manner possible," he said. "It was adjourned to February 19 in the normal course - we have not sought any adjournment." Upon completion of hearing, the Subhiksha management would be given 15 days to remit the dues, failing which properties of promoters could get attached, sources said.