Antony Karabus is an Executive Advisor at GlassRatner. For over four decades, he has partnered with more than 150 retailers, throughout the US and Canada, to create substantive earnings improvement and enterprise value.
Antony brings strong financial acumen, operational excellence, and deep retail experience to US and Canadian retailers who want to improve their business operations and profitability. His focus is on diagnosing whether a retailer’s challenges are existential or fixable, and building the bespoke plan to get the best result for the stakeholders.
He founded Karabus Management in 1990, a boutique retail advisory firm (later sold to a Big Four accounting firm). Antony then co-founded HRC Retail Advisory in 2013 (sold to Accenture in 2021). He co-created the first comprehensive North American Retail P&L Financial Benchmarking Study, is a sought-after speaker at industry forums, and serves as a go-to source for retail trade publications. He is a regular voice in the trade press, notably WWD (Women’s Wear Daily, the leading US Retail Daily publication).
- Worked with one of Canada’s largest national grocers and drove synergies following the acquisition of a large regional grocer, both in the diagnostic/business plan and then in the execution over the following three years
- Engaged by a large national grocery chain and worked with the major shareholder and leadership in US and Canada through their financial difficulties, taking out hundreds of millions in cost and played a role in the significant increase in stock price before their failed transaction with Pathmark and eventual liquidation
- Worked closely with America’s most prominent luxury retailer upon acquisition by two of the leading Global private equity firms in 2005 on a cost-efficient structure and process for growth and then again at a moment of crisis and sharp decline in luxury sales during the global financial crisis when Antony & team helped Nieman take out hundreds of millions of costs and improved inventory metrics.
- Worked with the second largest global funeral home and cemetery chain and played a key role in the cost and organizational restructuring through Chapter 11/CCAA to streamline organization prior to emergence from formal proceeding
- Worked with a leading US and Canadian special loans lender and performed rapid diagnostics and executed for challenged retailers in their portfolio
- Worked with the family and CFO of America’s largest and most loved luxury retailer, over four years, to take out cost through their digital transformation, without internal or external disruption
- Engaged by a leading North American big box home furnishing and décor chain and worked with the activist shareholder to take out hundreds of millions in unproductive inventory and to improve store service through store labor optimization, ahead of the Chapter 11/Chapter 7 filings
- Antony started his business education early. He was introduced to business by his traveling salesman grandfather.
- He sharpened his analytical skills in the South African Defense Force.