The founders of Burnley-headquartered aerospace products manufacturer Velocity Composites have "made it clear" that they do not support the company's proposals for re-constituting its board.
At an AGM earlier in the year, Velocity outlined its plans. At that time, it was agreed that Mark Mills would step down from his role of executive chairman, while former chief executive Jon Bridges was appointed as the interim chief executive and Andrew Hebb was confirmed as continuing as the interim chief financial officer and company secretary.
Neither of the interim roles are members of the board.
It was also announced that the remaining members would appoint independent search consultants to identify a new independent non-executive chairman. Brian Tenner was appointed as the group's senior independent director to lead this process.
It was proposed that the new chairman would be charged with leading the board in identifying a permanent chief executive and chief financial officer to replace the two current interim office holders. An additional non-executive director would also be appointed.
However, the founders have made clear that they do not support the process and instead have proposed an alternative approach to re-constituting the board, which involves their two nominees being appointed before resolving the permanent posts of chairman, chief executive and chief financial officer. The board had offered to appoint one of the founder nominees during the search process but this offer was rejected.
"While disappointed by this turn of events, the board had no choice but to engage with the founders and are currently in active discussion to attempt to resolve matters in the interests of all stakeholders in the short term and in an orderly fashion," said the company. "In light of those discussions, the independent search for a new chairman has been temporarily put on hold."
Elsewhere, Velocity has reported a rise in revenues for the six months to 30 April 2019 from £11.6m to £12.2m. Gross profits increased from £1.8m to £2.6m.
Senior independent director Brian Tenner said: "Today, the board announced an encouraging set of interim results that shows the business growing, improving margins and cash flows, while also identifying some attractive investment opportunities that can add significant value to the group in the medium term.
"It is clearly in everyone's best interests to agree an orderly board transition in as short a time frame as possible to allow the group to focus on those business opportunities. We hope to update shareholders in the very near term on a successful outcome to the current discussions with the founders."