There was a flurry of news from trouble national window and door installers Safestyle UK on Tuesday. The first was an update on the recent court filing against NIAMAC Developments Ltd. The second was the announcement that newly appointed Chairman Peter Richardson has resigned with immediate effect.
Lets start with the latest on the court filing.
A court update
This was the first part of a statement announced on the Safestyle UK Plc website:
Further to the announcement on 21 May 2018 and following a court hearing on 25 May 2018, Safestyle UK PLC provides an update having issued a claim seeking injunctive relief and damages against NIAMAC Developments Ltd (trading as Safeglaze UK) and a number of named individuals. The claim was made in the Business and Property Courts of England & Wales, on the Intellectual Property list.
The claim asks the Court to determine whether Safestyle is entitled to injunctive relief and damages from what the Group considers to be passing off, the misuse of confidential information, unlawful means conspiracy and malicious falsehood.
Safestyle also applied for urgent interim relief, pending the trial of this matter. The first hearing of that application took place on 25 May 2018.
At the hearing, 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 PLC.
A further hearing concerning outstanding matters raised in Safestyle UK PLC’s application for interim injunctive relief will be heard during the week commencing 9 July 2018.
So we have a little bit more meat on the bone from the original announcement of the legal claim, but nothing earth shattering. I guess we may find out things of more significance after the 9th July.
Chairman resigns
One month. Four weeks. That’s all it took for newly appointed Chairman Peter Richardson to resign. Here is the rest of that statement:
Safestyle also announces the resignation of Chairman Peter Richardson with immediate effect. Peter assumed the role of Chair at short notice but it has become clear that the specific challenges currently facing the business and the time commitment required are beyond what he envisaged. The Board will now seek a replacement Chairman with the requisite time, experience and turnaround skills. Chris Davies, current Senior Non Executive Director and former CEO of SIG PLC will lead the search process for a successor.
Chris Davies, Senior Non Executive Director of Safestyle UK PLC, commented:
“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.
The seeking of another new Chair I am sure is not something they thought they would have to be doing, on top of all the other tasks at hand. But there we are.
The share price moved very little on this announcement, settling at 60.65p per share. Well within it’s trading range of the last few weeks. Normally an announcement that a new Chairman resigning would send the share price lower, but I suspect much of the damage has been done at this point.
This remains a story to keep a close eye on.
See the original statement in full here
To get weekly updates from DGB sent to your inbox, enter your email address in the space below to subscribe:
By subscribing you agree to DGB sending you weekly email updates with all published content on this website, as well as any major updates to the services being run on DGB. Your data is never passed on to third parties or used by external advertising companies. Your data is protected and stored on secure servers run by Fivenines UK Ltd.
