Safestyle wins first court battle against Safeglaze – but new chairman Richardson steps down
May 2018

Safestyle has won the first stage of its legal battle against rival newcomer Safeglaze, with a number of interim court injunctions ‘preventing Safeglaze UK and certain named individuals from undertaking various actions’ and also requiring them to provide specified documents to Safestyle.

In the same announcement, Safestyle also said that its new chairman Peter Richardson is stepping down with immediate effect saying the scale of the challenge and time required are greater than he had envisaged.

Richardson took the chair at short notice last month after the resignation of the then chairman Steve Halbert along with a profit warning in the face of ‘aggressive new market entrant’ Safeglaze read story. Chris Davies, a senior non-executive director, and former SIG chief executive will lead the search for a successor.

The claim, for injunctive relief and damages against Niamac Developments Ltd, trading as Safeglaze UK, was made in the Business and Property Courts of England & Wales, on the Intellectual Property list. It asks the Court to determine whether Safestyle is entitled to injunctive relief and damages from what the Group considers to be passing off, the misuse of confidential information, unlawful means conspiracy and malicious falsehood.

Safestyle also applied for urgent interim relief, pending the trial of this matter and on Friday (May 25), the court granted a number of interim orders. A further hearing concerning this and outstanding matters will be heard in July.

Chris Davies said in today’s statement: “I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the Board, to thank Peter for his time and efforts since joining Safestyle in July 2016. Peter recently stepped into the Chairman role at short notice and has devoted a significant amount of time to support the business. He made a strong contribution to the Board during what has been a challenging time and we wish him luck in his future endeavours.

“We are pleased with the outcome of the hearing and, although we are disappointed to see Peter go, the Board now has the opportunity to appoint a Chairman with the requisite time, experience and turnaround skills at what is a timely juncture. The incoming Chairman will, amongst other responsibilities, lead the process of reinforcing the Board with a new contingent of NEDs to complement existing skillsets.”