David MacLellan has announced his intention to stand down as chairman of interior solutions provider Havelock Europa.

Speaking at the Fife firm’s annual meeting of shareholders on Friday, MacLellan told investors that the company expects first half trading to be in line with expectations thanks largely to its order pipeline in the public sector, but warned that it is difficult to make predictions over trading in the second half of the year.

He said: “The Board is pleased to report that the management actions taken in late 2015 to restructure and right size the business are making a positive contribution. We continue to work on simplifying the business and maximising the customer experience, both of which are key factors in helping us achieve the medium-term goal of diversifying our customer base and growing the business.

“The restructuring of the business has impacted on the development of the new Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) which has taken longer than originally planned. Nevertheless we are pleased to have implemented the first module of the system last month and now expect to complete the full implementation during Q4 2016.

“Backed by the strong, largely public sector, order book the Board expects first half performance for 2016 to remain in line with our expectations. However, the business continues to have a high dependency on second half orders and whilst the public sector is performing well, visibility within the retail and leisure sector is less clear.

“This situation makes predictions for the second half of the year difficult but nevertheless the Board currently believes, in the light of the actions taken and the strategy being pursued, that performance for the full year will also remain in line with our expectations.”

Further to the announcement made on 29 April 2016, the company confirmed that Alastair Kerr has resigned as a director with effect from June 10.

MacLellan added that he will step down from the post during the year.

He said: “Having been on the board of Havelock for six years and having been chairman for four of those years, during which time I have overseen a number of important developments including the appointment of a new CEO, a new FD and a refreshed senior management team, I feel that now is a good time for me to step down.

“To this end, I have asked my colleagues under the direction of Richard Sweetman to commence the search for an external candidate to assume the role of chairman and I would hope that this can be concluded by the end of this year.”