The board and Pollaers have been in discussions for a few months and, by no coincidence, decided to make the announcement on the same day the struggling manufacturer released a set of numbers that can only be described as horrible.

Morphet will leave on September 3. But with sales down 18 per cent, a loss of $450 million and write-downs of $502 million, and major concerns about whether the company is too far gone to fix, not even the fresh blood of Pollaers was enough to stop shareholders from dumping the stock. The shares were down 4 per cent on a day when the market was down 0.2 per cent. Nor did it inspire confidence with an outlook statement warning that market conditions were challenging and were expected to remain so in 2013.

Whether Pollaers has sold himself short by taking on Pacific Brands, time will tell, but if anyone can fix the mess in the clothing and bedding manufacturer, he is it. But he will need the help of the board and that means a clean-out of directors, some of whom haven't been there very long but are culpable of allowing this company to go down a strategic path that can only be described as corporate terrorism.

Pollaers said he was attracted to the "great brands" of Pacific Brands. "It is a people business," he said. "I want to focus on the opportunities in this business, it is a pre-eminent design business and it has brands that are close to their customers," he said.

Translating this into top-line and bottom- line growth will be the challenge, but with write-downs and debt under control, he might be able to pull it off.

He has a good chairman at his side, Peter Bush, who recently moved into the top job and has a background in fast-moving consumer brands.

Pacific Brands has been a tale of woe for shareholders for far too long. While the high dollar, rising cotton prices and the rise of the internet has not helped, the company has also done itself few favours.

Merrill Lynch analyst David Errington has been one of the most vocal critics of the strategy of Pacific Brands, the blame for which he has placed at Morphet's feet.

One part of that strategy was the decision to take its manufacturing offshore before it had set up supply arrangements. But the company's biggest strategic error was to turn it from a category manager into a brand business after taking the advice of a consultant, lock, stock and barrel. This resulted in the culling of many brands, which opened the door for Kmart to move in. It then tried to improve margins by lifting the price of Bonds, which resulted in a big slump in sales.

With the group's credibility at its lowest ebb, the board finally decided it was time for a pair of "fresh eyes". This follows the resignation of chairman James MacKenzie in June and the departure of a number of executives.

Former naval officer Pollaers is a born leader, something the company will need as it battles to restore shareholder confidence, staff morale and relationships with customers.

He decided to take the job because he wasn't ready to leave executive life and didn't want to have to move his family overseas.

Pollaers became the boss of Foster's and was in the process of turning it around when it was taken over by SABMiller for more than $10 billion. Pollaers knows too well how important a good board is after his experience at Foster's. He will now face a race against time as private equity hovers around the company. The company suffered the ignominy of being approached earlier this year by private equity, but the move came to nothing after an agreement could not be reached. It is now trading at 56¢, putting it on a market cap of $515 million.