The boss of a roofing company whose former owner was jailed for sex offences has told of his efforts to rebuild the business in the wake of the events.
Dean Coombe had worked for business owner Grant Findley for about seven years, first in business development before rising to become operations director and then ultimately managing director of his domestic roofing firm.
In April Mr Findley was jailed for three years after a jury found him guilty of 10 counts of sexual activity with a child and one of meeting a child following sexual grooming. The sentencing, and the lead-up to it, rocked the Hartlepool company, which employs 54 people.
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Mr Coombe said he was shocked and appalled when the guilty verdict was given and the scale of the crimes became apparent and his thoughts turned to concern for the staff.
He explained: “Very quickly, some communication had to start between Grant and I about the future. A couple of days had passed since the verdict and I’d had a chance to get a feeling and take the mood of the team. The phones had been crazy and I’d spent a lot of time just reassuring people that I’d do what I could. I think that created a huge dependency on me which reinforced the feeling of responsibility, and I took full responsibility to save those jobs.
“I think I did a decent job in explaining to him [Grant Findley] that he had no future in the business. He hadn’t communicated with anyone in the team and it was very much my job to say that he wasn’t welcome and that the business wouldn’t survive if he tried to hang on to it.”
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A fast-tracked sale was agreed, putting Mr Coombe in full ownership of the firm and he set about on a campaign of “full transparency” to alleviate concerns among staff - including sharing documents to show when directorships were resigned and shares were transferred. The Findley name was taken out of the public eye with the firm’s brands stripped off branding and marketing efforts quietened for a period immediately after the court verdict.
But a busy fitting schedule helped the business to continue trading and led to a rebrand to Vantage Roofing. Mr Coombe, who talked of his pride at having retained all staff throughout the events, said: “We’re fortunate in that we had a decent brand and had been around a while, so I think everyone knew that we were more than one man.
“Ultimately, on top of being run by the same person with the same employees, all the same standards and process, we had a story about the importance of all these people’s wages. I think customers understood and the response was quite good.”
With Vantage now working to rebuild a presence in the North East, Mr Coombe said he wants to stress that there is no involvement from Mr Findley in the business.