Velocity, the leading supplier of advanced composite material kits, providing engineering value-solutions for the global aerospace industry, provides the following update, further to the announcement on 25 March (the ‘Board AGM Announcement’), in relation to the process for the re-constitution of the Board.

Board update

Over the last few months, the Board has been discussing with the founder shareholders, Jonathan Bridges, Gerard Johnson and Christopher Banks (the “Founders”) and others, how to implement a process in line with the Board AGM Announcement to identify and appoint a new Independent Chairman who would then lead the efforts to re-constitute the Board. The discussions have included engaging with a number of Institutional Shareholders.

The Board today announces that the current independent Non-executive Directors, Brian Tenner and Meera Parmar, have stood down from their Board positions. Two new independent Non-executive Directors nominated by the Founders, Andrew Beaden and Robert Soen, have been appointed to the Board. The new Board did not require a formal handover period. These board changes became effective following a board meeting this morning, 24 July 2019.

The Company is currently operating under the management of Jonathan Bridges as interim CEO and Andrew Hebb as interim CFO. The new Directors will be responsible for identifying and carrying out a process to appoint a new independent Chairman, new permanent Executive Directors and, if required, an additional Non-executive Director, as well as establishing the interim constitution and roles to be held on the Board and its various sub-committees.

New Non-Executive Directors - summary biographical details

Mr Beaden has been appointed to the Board as an independent Non-executive Director. He most recently served as Group Finance Director and a member of the board of Luxfer Holding plc, a producer of highly engineered advanced materials, from 2011 to 2017, having joined its predecessor British Aluminium in 1997. Luxfer (LXFR) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Mr Beaden is a co-founder and Chairman of IN4.0 Group Limited, a company encouraging growth through the use of industry 4.0 technologies.

Mr Beaden is a Chartered Accountant, holds a degree in economics and econometrics from Nottingham University and is a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

Mr Soen has been appointed to the Board as an independent Non-executive Director. He has worked extensively in aerospace and automotive supply chains, ending his executive career as Senior Vice President Supply Chain in GKN Aerospace Services Limited. Mr Soen is currently a Non-executive Director of Nasmyth Group Limited, a global precision engineering and metal treatment business.

Mr Soen is a Fellow of the Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

Brian Tenner and Meera Parmar commented as follows:

“We are pleased to say that business performance has seen a marked improvement during our tenure and we are now trading at a break-even level. We have also overseen the efforts that saw the full amount of EIS/VCT funds employed by the due date on a range of attractive new business investment opportunities as announced on 12 June 2019.

The year since our respective appointments has been a challenging one with the Company facing various operational difficulties, combined with a serious deterioration in relations with the founding shareholders. This has required very significant commitments of time and energy from both of us.

While we had hoped to stay in post to resolve any outstanding issues with the Founders by leading an independent search process to appoint a new independent Chairman, we now believe that the future re-constitution of the Board will be best served by us standing down at this time. We have at all times acted in the best interests of Velocity and would like to take this opportunity to express once more our thanks to the whole team of dedicated staff, without whom the current improvements in business performance would not have been possible. We wish the new Board and the whole Velocity team well on the next stage of their business journey.”