Blackfriar: The Spice of life, chief's departure marks end of an era

Rigby's abrupt departure from the Leeds-based group to "pursue his other business interests" is the end of an era for Spice – a hugely successful era at that.

Rigby was the driver and engine that powered this company from a single 3m contract with Yorkshire Electricity to a 386m turnover group with more than 4,800 staff, tackling jobs ranging from checking power lines to pinpointing unbilled properties.

A few years ago, when asked about his work-life balance, he replied he didn't believe in one. A pure entrepreneur, Spice was all the adventure he needed. With that in mind, it's hard to believe he would have chosen to leave this way.

Rigby led Spice on an acquisition spree that saw it swallow up a 103m listed company, plus numerous smaller businesses.

But lately this hunger had been troubling the City.

Shares in the group have tumbled more than 43 per cent since October. Meanwhile, debt ballooned to 116.5m by October.

As Rigby left the group this week, he insisted he had been "content" to cut debt and grow Spice organically. "That most certainly was the plan," he said. "I had no big acquisition plans."

But when the Yorkshire Post spoke to him just seven months ago, as Spice sealed yet another acquisition, he said the plan was to continue buying, albeit on a smaller scale. Blackfriar believes Rigby's downfall was that he didn't know when to stop.

The City appears to agree. One major investor said it had become "increasingly concerned" at Spice's strategy in recent months.

Another shareholder, Ignis, profited from a short position in Spice's shares. Others said the writing had been on the wall for months.

While shares fell on the day of the announcement, tellingly, they had recovered their losses and even gained by close of play yesterday.

While Spice will never be quite the same without this ebullient and tough-talking northerner at its helm, it faces a bright future in a healthy sector. Much of this is thanks to Rigby and his ambition.

Blackfriar believes the lesson from his departure is that no-one is bigger than the company.

The news that influential investor group the Association of British Insurers (ABI) is expected to counsel members about Marc Bolland's pay package has been warmly welcomed in some quarters.

There has been huge uproar over the 15m pay package being awarded to the incoming Marks & Spencer boss.

Yes 15m may sound a lot of money, but Bolland is going to have to meet incredibly demanding targets to get that pay.

Since RBS's Fred the Shred made the 1980s fat-cat culture look positively demure, there is a new trend for attacking anyone who gets paid a good salary for doing an incredibly demanding job.

As the Yorkshire Post reported earlier this week Bolland's former company Morrisons was the 44th biggest dividend payer to shareholders in the UK.

During his time at the Bradford-based supermarket Bolland nearly doubled the group's profits to 655m.

The supermarket sector has done phenomenally well during incredibly difficult times.

Unlike the nationalised banks, the big retailers have not gone cap in hand to the taxpayer and therefore if they want to attract the best people they have to pay the best salaries.

At a time when there is talk of a brain drain from the UK to better paying countries, Bolland is a welcome example of a Dutch export who is benefiting the UK economy.

If he repeats the magic he performed at Morrisons and turns M&S around, the UK economy will benefit and he will have earned his 15m salary.

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