ARCHIE Bethel, the man who led the successful regeneration of Lanarkshire in the 1990s, is to step down this week as chief operating officer of Motherwell Bridge and leave the company.
Hugh Hayes, the engineer-
ing company's executive chairman, said yesterday that Bethel had ''recognised for some
time that his current role
would come to an end'' under a new decentralised structure which he would unveil within weeks.
Hayes added: ''I am getting full support from the banks to come up with a restructuring proposal that preserves as much as I think preservable in the group, and my ambition is to preserve the lot.''
Bethel, 49, had been frequently tipped as chief executive of the group which he joined in 1996 just as he received an OBE for his five years leading Lanarkshire Development Agency. He had steered the area through the loss of the Clydesdale and Ravenscraig steel works, helping employment to recover within three years to a higher level than it had been before the closures.
A design engineer by training, Bethel had been head of the manufacturing division at Motherwell Bridge, and last year was appointed chief operating officer months
ahead of the retirement of
chief executive John Lumsden. He then ran the engineering company alongside Duncan Whyte, the former chief executive of Weir Group who was brought in late last year as deputy chairman but left the group in May when Hayes
was installed by the group's banks.
Hayes said the group's
head office had been slimmed down from 60 a year ago to below 20, and management buy-out offers were being encouraged but only for
very small non-core subsidiaries of the group, which employs 1900, including 300 in Motherwell out of a total 800 in Scotland.
On the group's pension scheme, where benefit transfers have been suspended, Hayes said he had met with the scheme trustees and the issues would be addressed.
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