Seafield to show door to executive

Seafield, the Dublin-quoted transport firm which operates in the British market, has revealed that it plans to make its financial controller, Mr Guy Foster, redundant at the end of the month. This follows the departure in similar circumstances last month of its managing director, Mr Lyle Noble.

The company's chairman, Mr Jonathan Glanz, said Mr Noble and Mr Foster will be paid statutory redundancy and salary for their notice period.

When contacted at his home, Mr Foster said he had received no formal notification of his redundancy but said this was likely to happen. He declined to comment saying he was still "technically" employed Mr Noble also declined to comment when contacted yesterday by The Irish Times.

The redundancies came shortly after Seafield's rejection of "two or three" bids for the company.

The redundancies were connected with a review of Seafield's operations which was concluded after the rejection of the bids, said Mr Glanz.

Seafield is moving its head office from Canterbury to Worksop as part of its restructuring. Four workers are being made redundant in addition to Mr Noble and Mr Foster, who had spent 10 and five years with Seafield, respectively.

He added that there was no suggestion that Mr Noble's involvement in a group which had discussed a possible MBO was connected to his dismissal. Other people connected to this proposal were still "very much involved" with Seafield. In his statement to shareholders, Mr Glanz said the year to date had been "extremely testing" for the company, although current trading was "buoyant".

The company is investigating the feasibility of securing reduced transaction fees for small shareholders who want to sell their stock to the company. The company's shares closed at 15 cents on the Dublin exchange last evening. While Seafield was "not courting offers", Mr Glanz said it was looking at opportunities to expand its business. Pre-tax profit rose to £814,000 last year from £113,000 in 1998, although the 1998 figure included a £350,000 write-off associated with the termination of an element of the business. Turnover last year rose 9 per cent to £11.4 million.