The chief executive of hazardous waste treatment firm Augean Plc, Stewart Davies, has this week resigned from his post with immediate effect.
The announcement came in a board changes and trading update published on Monday (16 October). It is uncertain whether Dr Davies will remain in his position as chairman of the Environmental Services Association (ESA) of which Augean is a member company.
Stewart Davies has resigned from his position as chief executive of Augean: he is also chairman of the Environmental Services Association
Jim Meredith, currently the non-executive chairman of the Augean group, will expand his role to that of executive chairman at Augean and lead the business through its ongoing re-structuring and cost reduction programmes, the group said.
HMRC
In August, letsrecycle.com reported that Augean was in discussions with HMRC over whether it had paid enough landfill tax in relation to its treatment and disposal of hazardous waste. (see letsrecycle.com story)
In a trading and HMRC update (16 October) the company said: “As previously announced, Augean remains in active discussions with HMRC with regard to a landfill tax assessment. The impact of the HMRC assessment, which the board believes will not be resolved imminently, as well as a continued weaker trading performance, is expected to lead to full year profit being below the level of 2016 with 2018 also expected to be lower than previous expectations.
“The Board has therefore implemented a further round of cost reduction including a management reorganisation, to save at least a further £1.7m of cost annually. This is incremental to the saving of £1.3m already announced in September. The one-off cost of this will be approximately £0.9m and will be shown as an exceptional cost (in addition to the £0.7m for the first round of cost saving). The additional cost savings are expected to be realised fully in 2018 with the one-off exceptional costs incurred in 2017.”
ESA statement
A statement from the ESA’s executive director Jacob Hayler is expected soon as to whether Dr Davies will remain in the position. It is not thought that the ESA currently has a vice chair and it is seen as a possibility that should the chair of the Association remain with Augean, Mr Meredith could offer to be chairman. He has considerable experience in the sector and was a former executive director of Shanks and was also chief executive of FCC Environment in the UK.
The ESA represents most of the large waste management companies across the UK and a number of smaller businesses, as well as having service members.
‘Difficult period’
Jim Meredith, Augean executive chairman, commented with reference to changes at the group, said: “These new appointments greatly enhance the breadth and depth of the board as well as adding additional commercial experience.
“We wish Stewart well in his future endeavours and thank him for his efforts whilst chief executive of Augean.
“The Group has been through a difficult period but I believe its underlying business remains strong and that our strategy and new board now in place will see the Group make solid progress.”
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