Bristol-based factoring group Ultimate Finance announced a further boardroom shake-up today following last month's surprise departure of Richard Pepler, the company's chief executive and co-founder.
Mr Pepler's former partner and company co-founder, Jeremy Coombes has been promoted to chief executive officer with immediate effect.
Clive Garston is also to retire as non-executive chairman when Ultimate's interim results for the six months to December 31 are announced – these are due in March 2012. He will be replaced by Roger McDowell, one of two new non-executive directors who joined the board in November. In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, the board said it "wishes to thank Mr Garston for his contribution to the company over the last 10 years and wishes him well in his future endeavours".
It added that Roger McDowell "will work with Mr Garston on an orderly handover in the coming months", describing Mr McDowell as an experienced director of 30 years' standing who currently holds non-executive positions at several listed companies. The company said that Mr Coombes, who has been group managing director for the last three years, has 25 years experience in factoring in various operational and underwriting roles. He has previously been described by Ultimate as already playing "a pivotal role within the group and has increasingly been taking responsibility for the group's operational and strategic plans".
Meanwhile mystery continues to surround the reasons for Richard Pepler's abrupt departure, along with non-executive director Richard Lee who was chairman of the remuneration committee. Mr Pepler, who was previously sales and marketing director at Bibby Factors in Bristol, launched the business nine years ago and built it up to become one of the largest independent businesses in the invoice discounting and factoring market.
It has a market value of £7.34m on the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) AIM market. At the time of its annual results in September the fast-growing group announced a 103% increase in operating profits to £904,000 on turnover up 51% to £9.7m.
From its start in Bristol, covering mainly the South West, the firm has expanded into a national operator through a string of acquisitions and has also entered the international asset-backed finance market.
The only public explanation for Mr Pepler's departure is that he “decided to seek new challenges”. The company said in an update, when Mr Pepler's departure was announced, that while trading conditions remained difficult in the current economic climate, it continued to trade in-line with expectations and looked forward to updating the market on progress at the time of the interim results due in March 2012.
