Daily briefing: Will Barbon be able to rise again?

When Mike Ramsey was appointed one year ago as Barbon chief executive, he was hailed as someone who had “grown a number of high-profile businesses” and who would lead the company in the next phase of its development. Today, the group issued a statement, saying he had actually been recruited to sell the property and commercial division and thanking him for his role in achieving that goalat the beginning of the month.

His departure next week opens a new chapter in Barbon’s recent troubled story.

Having sold its property and commercial division to Gallagher, it is left with lettings brands HomeLet, Letsure and Rentshield.

HomeLet’s brand was damaged last year when it had to set aside £2.5m to compensate customers who had been told by letting agents they had to buy Barbon’s contents insurance as a rental condition.

Barbon has since endeavoured to put things right, by ensuring its agents do not carry on with the practice.

The lettings market is competitive.

Giles wants to grow in the sector and, in March, hired Carlos Thompson from Zurich to head its private rental sector, where he created EndsleighLet. In the meantime, Direct Line continues to advertise its landlord insurance on TV.

Meanwhile HomeLet’s problems are mentioned in two of the top 10 Google search results for Barbon HomeLet. In November last year, it lost the Bibalet landlord scheme to Towergate.

Building the brand back up and winning market share will now fall, in the interim at least, to group financial director Ian Sutherland, who becomes acting chief executive with effect from 1 June.

“Ian will lead Barbon into the next stage of its development by strengthening our market leading position in a growing rental marketplace,” group chairman Jamie Smith said. Only time will tell whether that statement, too, masks an exit strategy.