New CFO to take over at Timberland

The Timberland Company will be replacing its chief financial officer at the end of the month, the Stratham, N.H.-based casual footwear and apparel maker disclosed Thursday.

John D. Crimmins III, vice president and chief financial officer, will be leaving the company on Sept. 30, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company offered no explanations, and inquiries were not answered by deadline.

Carrie W. Teffner, the 43-year-old CFO of a division of Sara Lee Corp., will replace Crimmins, the company said.

Teffler, a graduate of the University of Vermont has been a finance executive with Sara Lee since 1998. She has been the vice president and CFO of Sara Lee’s International Household and Body Care unit since 2007. Prior to that, she served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of the company’s foodservice division.

At Timberland, Teffner will get a $325,000 base salary (and be eligible for 65 percent bonus of that), a $75,000 cash signing bonus, moving expenses, 27,500 shares of stock options and 10,000 restricted stock units to be vested, according to the SEC filing. (The equity awards will be vested over three years)

Crimmins, with the same base salary, earned a compensation package worth $731,000 in 2008, according to SEC filings. Crimmins, a former CFO at Interactiveprint, started at Timberland in 2002 and spent his first five years as corporate controller before becoming acting CFO. He assumed the CFO position in August 2007.

Timberland, like most companies in its industry, has struggled in recent years. In 2008, it posted a net gain of $43 million in 2008, about $3 million more than in 2007, despite a $72 million drop in revenue. But the 2007 figure includes some $16 million in restructuring costs, thanks to the closing of some 28 retail stores.

In the second quarter of this year it reported a second-quarter net loss of $19.2 million, compared with a second-quarter 2008 net loss of $18.9 million. Quarterly revenue declined 14.4 percent, to $179.7 million.

Timberland shares closed Thursday at $13.82, up 19 cents. — BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW