The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Finance chief departs furniture firm
The finance director of Fife furniture group Havelock Europa has quit, just days after the business secured a multi-million-pound funding package.
The Kirkcaldy-based group yesterday informed the London Stock Exchange that company secretary and chief financial officer Donald Borland had advised the board of his intention to resign.
He will leave the business next month following board approval of the group’s results for the year to December 31.
Mr Borland – previously finance director with Edinburgh-headquartered construction and housebuilding group Miller – only joined Havelock on April 26 last year.
Notice of his departure comes less than a week after the group completed on a new financing deal that extends its existing senior debt facility of £5 million for a further two years.
The package also includes additional subordinated debt financing of £3m over six years and a change to the deficit reduction contributions to the group’s pension scheme.
When the new agreements were revealed last month, chief executive Shaun Ormrod said he expected the new package to support the business back towards a position of “market leadership in the medium term”.
The company reported a pre-tax loss of £2.6m for the first six months of last year and expects to continue to be in the red in the second half despite a “substantial improvement” in overall trading outlook.
In its announcement to the stock exchange, Havelock Europa said interim arrangements had been put in place to cover for Mr Borland’s departure.
“Pending the appointment of a permanent board replacement, the recently appointed head of finance, Bruce Middleton, will assume responsibility for all finance matters,” the group confirmed.
“He will be supported by Ian Whybrow, an experienced finance director, on an interim basis, for a period of four to six months.”
Mr Ormrod extended his thanks to Mr Borland for his service and said he left “with our best wishes for the future”.