THE chief executive of a Fife fit-out business that was bought out of pre-packed administration three months ago has been replaced in the role by the firm’s chief operating officer.
Shaun Ormrod, who was brought in to run manufacturing firm Havelock Europa a year ago, has resigned from successor business Havelock International three months to the day after the deal went through.
He has been replaced on an interim basis by George McAdam, who joined Havelock International from Falkirk bus manufacturing business Alexander Dennis in July.
READ MORE: Havelock creditors to lose out on close to £30m
Havelock Europa was placed into administration on July 3 after being unable to service a debt pile that has since been valued at £30 million.
London private equity house Rcapital relaunched the business as Havelock International on the same day after buying it out of administration in a pre-packed deal put together by PwC.
Havelock Europa, which was founded in 1869, filed for administration after struggling financially in the wake of losing a major contract from a banking client - believed to be Lloyds - in 2015.
That one client had contributed £21.1m of the firm’s 2015 turnover of £70.3m, with the figure dropping to £1.4m of total turnover of £60.8m in the following year.
READ MORE: Over 300 jobs saved as Havelock Europa secures rescue deal
Its final set of financial results, which were released at the end of May after a four-week delay, showed that turnover fell by 12.5% to £53.2m in the year to December 2017 while a marginal pre-tax profit of £200,000 in 2016 turned into a loss of £5.3m
After issuing a profit warning last September the business replaced then chief executive David Ritchie with Mr Ormrod - the former chief executive of Farnborough International Airshow organiser Farnborough International – and tasked him with turning its fortunes around.
Havelock Europa’s administrators have revealed that they expect to recover just £1.4m to pay creditors, all of which will go to secured creditor Bank of Scotland.
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