Mark Rogerson has decided to step down as chief executive officer of Speedy Hire as the firm warned trading performance had fallen short of expectations.

The plant hire firm said equipment shortages and IT problems have led to a slower-than-expected start to the year.

A board-initiated review attributed the poor revenue performance to a lack of available equipment during the network optimisation programme; a focus on strategic accounts at the expense of SME customers and poor customer service caused by disruption during the implementation of a new IT and MI system.

Speedy said core hire trading across strategic accounts remained strong but that talks with a third party about the potential sale of its remaining oil & gas business in the Middle East had failed to reach a satisfactory conclusion and had been discontinued. It is now considering alternative options.

Current group finance director Russell Down has been appointed chief executive officer with immediate effect and will also retain the finance role until a replacement is appointed.

Jan Åstrand, who was appointed non-executive chairman in late-2014, has assumed the role of executive chairman and intends to revert to non-executive status at the time of the announcement of half year 2016 results in November 2015.

Jan Åstrand said: “This is extremely disappointing. I believe that Speedy remains a fundamentally good business but, whilst some progress has been made over the last year, the remedial action programmes have not been delivered as needed.

“Our immediate priority is to accelerate the execution of those programmes and realise the upside we believe they will deliver over the medium term. Additionally, we will increase our focus on the SME core hire market.

“Improving performance is our top priority. We expect to be able to provide an update when we issue our H1 FY2016 pre close statement which will be in the last week of September.”