No comment on Applegarth job rumours

9:08am Saturday 5th July 2008

ZERO-EMISSION vehicle maker Tanfield Group yesterday refused to comment on speculation that Northern Rock's former chief executive would be joining the company.

Reports circulated that Adam Applegarth could join the world-leading electricvehicle company, after Tanfield scaled back its growth forecasts for the year.

Speculation suggested some of its major shareholders were allegedly about to put him forward for the role in a bid to revive the company's fortunes.

Shares in Tanfield fell sharply earlier in the week after it admitted it would not achieve its aggressive plans for growth and postponed the opening of its North-East facility - which was set to create up to 1,000 jobs, 300 of them immediately.

It also said it could be forced to make redundancies.

The fall in Tanfield's stock continued yesterday, wiping millions more off the Washington- based firm's market value.

Last night, a spokesman for Tanfield said he could not comment on the rumours.

However, The Northern Echo understands the speculation is untrue and current chief executive Darren Kell will remain in the role.

Mr Applegarth left Northern Rock in December last year when the Newcastlebased lender collapsed after being forced to seek help from the Bank of England.

He has been heavily criticised since his departure for his role in the Northern Rock crisis, which sparked the first run on a bank in more than a century.

He had previously enjoyed a quick rise to the top, after becoming the bank's youngest chief executive in 2001, aged 39. He joined the company as a management trainee.

Speculation linking him to Tanfield is thought to have arisen after the company admitted earlier this week it had become the latest victim of the credit crisis.

After previously targeting a US expansion on a massive scale - with the opening of two £15m factories planned - Tanfield said that would no longer be the case, and any Stateside expansion would be through a joint venture with a company which already owned US production facilities.

The firm said that, although it would still see some form of annual growth, it would be significantly less than it originally planned, and may involve a reduction in its workforce.

Tanfield is already going to make about 30 redundancies at its engineering services base in Tanfield Lea, County Durham, but said it could not comment on numbers of further job cuts or whether its flagship Vigo Centre factory would be affected.

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