Vistry chief operating officer, Earl Sibley, will depart the housebuilder after nine years following the housebuilder’s decision to remove his role.
Sibley will leave the company at the end of the year but has stepped down from his role as director with immediate effect. Vistry has said that the removal of the COO role will bring closer proximity between the business and chair and CEO, Greg Fitzgerald, by reducing the length of reporting lines.
The news of the restructure follows Vistry issuing two profit warnings in recent months as issues with the cost reporting process in its southern division came to light. Initially the housebuilder had reduced its by £115million in October, a figure that was subsequently revised to £165million as the investigation went on.
Vistry issues second profit warning after review into issues at south division
A review into the issue found that “insufficient management capability, non-compliant commercial forecasting processes and poor divisional culture” were to blame in the southern division but that the problem did not extend to the wider company.
This week, Vistry announced that a recent vote by shareholders saw one in five vote against re-electing Greg Fitzgerald in May. Last year, the developer made the decision to make Fitzgerald the executive chair of the company as well as chief executive.
Speaking on the removal of the COO role, Fitzgerald said: “Earl has been an integral part of our operational and executive team and his leadership and contribution have been significant in helping to establish Vistry as a leading housebuilding and partnerships business.”
“Having worked with Earl since I joined Bovis in 2017, I am very grateful for his dedication, support and hard work during his time with us. He will leave with our best wishes for the future.”
