Kbb News

Posted: 14/06/2010

Boardroom coup at William Ball

Terry Ball, son of founder William Ball, has been made redundant.

William Ball's MD Terry Ball has been made redundant by the company he has led for many years as its managing director and after almost 50 years of service.

According to Terry Ball, he and his sons own 45% of the company's shares. The remainder are owned by other family members who, together with senior personnel Peter Loftus and Gavin Abel, and a consultant (ironically appointed by Terry Ball himself), decided the work carried out by the managing director could be covered by other members of staff

In a somewhat tersely written email sent to the media and some of William Ball's customers, Terry ball said: "The effects of the recession made it necessary for me to demand extra commitment from all directors by visiting customers to build strong relationships and to understand first-hand what difficulties our dealers were experiencing.

"Sadly none of them recognised the importance of doing so. My criticism of their attitude led to a revolt against my authority and ultimately led to my redundancy.

"I am sure many customers and suppliers will find the situation unbelievable, but it has happened despite the fact that I am a 25% Shareholder and my two sons own another 20%. The combined 45% was not enough to prevent the decision to make me redundant.

"Please note, I am not responsible for any of the decisions that have been taken in the past few months and I am not responsible for any actions taken by the William Ball board of Directors from 12th June 2010.

"My passion for the kitchen industry will now be channelled into a new company, Terence Ball Kitchens Ltd, currently based at Taunton in Somerset."

He has also asked people that wish to contact him to use his mailto:terenceball47@yahoo.co.uk email address as all his old William Ball contact details are now being answered by people at William Ball Ltd.

The image above is one of the new William Ball kitchens created by the product development team at William Ball and launched at kbb Birmingham earlier in the year.