Havelock Europa unveils Prescott as new chief executive

Havelock Europa, the embattled Scottish shopfitting company, has hired Eric Prescott as chief executive to succeed Hew Balfour who quit in March after 21 years in the job.

Shares rose 20 per cent to 9p as the announcement gave investors some encouragement in the firm's prospects. It blamed cuts made by retailers for a 5.9 million loss last year against a 7.7m profit in the previous 12 months.

The new chief executive, who has a background in rail infrastructure, takes over from David Hurcomb, who was appointed interim chief executive in March.

Chairman Malcolm Gourlay said Prescott would adopt a hands-on approach to bringing the company back to profitability. "His real strengths are that although he has worked for large organisations his career also includes a lot of smaller companies and hands on operational experience.

"Government expenditure cuts and the economic climate generally make this a tough time and David Hurcomb has done a good job of restructuring the business. It is really Eric Prescott's job to implement the business strategy."

The new chief executive is former UK president and managing director of rail group Alstom and former managing director of Balfour Beatty rail infrastructure services. His most recent post was as chief executive of Leonard Cheshire Disability.

Prescott resigned from the Leonard Cheshire charity in May after reportedly falling out with directors over proposed cost cutting measures.

Havelock Europa, which specialises in refitting banks, shops and educational premises has suffered greatly during the economic downturn.

In June this year the company announced plans to cut costs by dropping from the main market of the London Stock Exchange to the Alternative Investment Market.