Boss who set up Interserve's fit-out business steps down as director

Interserve has said the man who set up the Paragon fit-out business it bought six years ago has not left the firm – despite resigning as a director of its parent.

Matt Bray has resigned as a director of Interserve Construction, its UK contracting business, less than two years after being appointed.

Documents filed at Companies House show that Bray resigned just before Easter with the news being confirmed in a filing the company made with Companies House earlier this month.

Companies House documents also show that Bray resigned on the same day, 19 April, as a director of Paragon Management UK, 14 years after helping set up the firm.

An Interserve spokesperson said: “[Bray] has not left the business. He no longer sits on the Interserve Construction board following [a] recent restructuring but remains a board member and director of Paragon.”

Paragon was based in the City of London and in its last full set of accounts before Interserve’s takeover posted a turnover of £46.5m in the year to December 2012 with a pre-tax profit of close to £550,000.

Following the deal, the company was absorbed into Interserve Construction with Paragon no longer separately filing its results.

News about Bray’s departure as a director comes as Interserve said it had re-jigged its Paragon and London and South East fit-out businesses.

Operations director Mark Buckle, who joined from Mace nearly two years ago, becomes its new divisional director for London and the South East while Mark Smith, who worked for the firm’s strategic projects business, becomes commercial director for the London and South East fit-out business.

But announcing the move, the firm also suggested it was cutting back its fit-out work adding that it “has started to wind down services that are not core to its future offering and remains focused on the successful completion and commercial close out of a small number of underperforming fit-out contracts”.

It said: “Interserve will continue to identify opportunities to improve cost efficiency and effectiveness across the fit-out business.”