Navyblue targets growth despite loss of directors

Navyblue Design Group is to lose three board directors over the coming weeks, including its chairman Jim Faulds, who will not be replaced. But joint group managing director Geoff Nicol (pictured) maintains that the consultancy is in a strong position and is looking to open an additional office in the North of England.

Clare Lundy, creative director for print, and founder and shareholder of the group, leaves after eight years in the role, with no job to go to. Head of digital media Pete Burns is leaving in a couple of months after being headhunted, although Nicol declines to reveal details of his new post.

Based in the London office, both Lundy and Burns sit on the Navyblue board, with Burns’ appointment to the board made just six months ago. As a shareholder, Lundy is one of six group level directors, while Burns sits on a lower tier of non-shareholder directors.

The group is seeking a replacement for Lundy, although it is unlikely that any appointment will immediately fill her group board vacancy. ‘The position is worthy of the board, but Clare moved up through the company to get there. This does leave a gap in the hierarchy of what we have, but it is unlikely [the replacement] will be on the board from day one,’ says Nicol.

Burns is replaced as head of digital media by Scott Howard, who was appointed as commercial director for digital earlier this year. Howard will not join the board immediately.

Faulds, who is based in the consultancy’s Edinburgh office, will leave this month after working out a two-year tenure to help develop a strategic direction for the group. There are no plans to appoint a replacement chairman ‘until the need arises’, says Nicol. Phil Jones, managing director of Real Time Consultancy, continues to fulfill a non-executive, advisory role for Nicol.

According to Douglas Alexander, managing director at Navyblue in Edinburgh, the departures follow the strategic planning by Faulds and the board. ‘We now know how we want to grow and in what way. What happens in that situation is that some people decide they want to be part of something and others decide it’s not for them. You’ve got to go with that,’ he says.

NAVYBLUE DESIGN GROUP:

• Offices in London and Edinburgh, with 20 and 50 staff respectively

• Third office in Leeds or Manchester under assessment, after Dublin ruled out

• Turnover contribution from each office in proportion to staff numbers

• Targeting a doubling of profits in 2006, strong growth in 3D and digital