111KAB I think your close to the mark with your comments, an old established company privately owned, trying to reinvent itself, but shackeled with legacy costs and more importantly working practices.
The telling sign is that of Price Waterhouse waiting in the wings to look at restructuring, to me it says the owners don't know what to do and are not willing to let the executive management do what they might want to do whilst the owners write more blank cheques.