ZERO-EMISSION vehicle
maker Tanfield Group yesterday
refused to comment on
speculation that Northern
Rock's former chief executive
would be joining the company.
Reports circulated that
Adam Applegarth could join
the world-leading electricvehicle
company, after Tanfield
scaled back its growth
forecasts for the year.
Speculation suggested
some of its major shareholders
were allegedly about to
put him forward for the role in
a bid to revive the company's
fortunes.
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Shares in Tanfield fell
sharply earlier in the week
after it admitted it would not
achieve its aggressive plans
for growth and postponed the
opening of its North-East facility
- which was set to create
up to 1,000 jobs, 300 of them
immediately.
It also said it could be forced
to make redundancies.
The fall in Tanfield's stock
continued yesterday, wiping
millions more off the Washington-
based firm's market
value.
Last night, a spokesman for
Tanfield said he could not
comment on the rumours.
However, The Northern Echo
understands the speculation
is untrue and current chief
executive Darren Kell will remain
in the role.
Mr Applegarth left Northern
Rock in December last
year when the Newcastlebased
lender collapsed after
being forced to seek help from
the Bank of England.
He has been heavily criticised
since his departure for
his role in the Northern Rock
crisis, which sparked the first
run on a bank in more than a
century.
He had previously enjoyed a
quick rise to the top, after becoming
the bank's youngest
chief executive in 2001, aged
39. He joined the company as
a management trainee.
Speculation linking him to
Tanfield is thought to have
arisen after the company admitted
earlier this week it had
become the latest victim of
the credit crisis.
After previously targeting a
US expansion on a massive
scale - with the opening of
two £15m factories planned -
Tanfield said that would no
longer be the case, and any
Stateside expansion would be
through a joint venture with
a company which already
owned US production facilities.
The firm said that, although
it would still see some
form of annual growth, it
would be significantly less
than it originally planned,
and may involve a reduction
in its workforce.
Tanfield is already going to
make about 30 redundancies
at its engineering services
base in Tanfield Lea, County
Durham, but said it could not
comment on numbers of further
job cuts or whether its
flagship Vigo Centre factory
would be affected.
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