Safestyle chairman Richardson resigns after a month

AIM-listed double glazing group Safestyle has announced the resignation of chairman Peter Richardson with immediate effect, just one month after he took on the role.

The company, which issued profit warnings last December and in February and April of this year, said it had become clear "that the specific challenges currently facing the business and the time commitment required are beyond what he envisaged".

It will now seek a replacement chairman with "the requisite time, experience and turnaround skills". This search will be led by current senior non-executive director and former SIG chief executive Chris Davies.

Davies said: "I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the board, to thank Peter for his time and efforts since joining Safestyle in July 2016. Peter recently stepped into the chairman role at short notice and has devoted a significant amount of time to support the business. He made a strong contribution to the board during what has been a challenging time and we wish him luck in his future endeavours.

"We are pleased with the outcome of the hearing and, although we are disappointed to see Peter go, the board now has the opportunity to appoint a chairman with the requisite time, experience and turnaround skills at what is a timely juncture. The incoming chairman will, amongst other responsibilities, lead the process of reinforcing the board with a new contingent of NEDs to complement existing skillsets."

Safestyle said last week that it was seeking damages and injunctive relief against competitor Safeglaze UK and a number of named individuals. It also applied for urgent interim relief pending trial of the matter.

The company said on Tuesday that the first hearing of that application took place last Friday and that the court made a number of orders against Safeglaze UK and certain named individuals.

"Those orders have been made on an interim basis, pending further order or final order of the court. They include a number of injunctive orders preventing Safeglaze UK and certain named individuals from undertaking various actions, and an order requiring them to provide specified documents to Safestyle UK."

A further hearing concerning outstanding matters raised in Safestyle’s application for interim injunctive relief will be heard in the week commencing 9 July.

Safestyle said in February that it had been hit by the activities of an "aggressive new market entrant", which had exacerbated an already difficult market. It did not give a name for the new entrant at the time, but said in April that since then, the activities of the competitor had intensified and that it had taken longer to rebuild the order intake to the rate previously expected.

At 1013 BST, the shares were up 1.4% to 60.50p.