Managing director of the of a family-run manufacturing firm Ebac in its £7m washing machine venture, has left her role, The Northern Echo has reported.
Pamela Petty, Ebac Group managing director, has stepped down, leaving her father, and company founder, John Elliott, in charge.
It is understood Mrs Petty resigned from her position after the Duke of Kent visited the firm to officially mark the beginning of its washing machine endeavour.
We have not yet seen any comment on the matter by Mrs Petty.
Her departure follows that of former CBI leader, Dianne Sharp, who joined Ebac’s senior team as chief executive in 2015, but left the company last year.
Ebac is reported to be only weeks away from becoming the only UK-based maker of washers, which has yielded a lucrative supply deal with retailer Currys.
Mrs Petty also took Ebac into chest freezer manufacturing and exposed it to national spotlight when appearing in a warts-and-all BBC documentary alongside former trade and investment minister, Lord Digby Jones, who critiqued the company’s expansion plans.
John Elliott, Ebac founder and chairman, said his daughter’s departure was her decision, adding she would be welcome back.
He told The Northern Echo: “Pamela decided to leave after the successful launch of the washing machine line, which is something she made a major contribution to.
“She choose to leave and would be very welcome back.
“It isn’t a secret and there’s no mystery and no cloak and dagger about it.”
It is understood Mr Elliott will now oversee Ebac’s washing machine project.
Production is expected to start in earnest later this year, once the company receives a key manufacturing component and completes hours of testing on its models.
Mrs Petty previously told The Northern Echo she had grand plans for the business, which included a push to manufacture more white goods.
Speaking last year, she revealed hopes of moving on to fridge-freezers and tumble dryers.
Speaking about chest freezers, which Ebac took on after it bought the collapsed Scottish Highlands-based Icetech Freezers operation and moved its Norfrost domestic range to the North-East, Mrs Petty said: “I see no reason why we cannot make all the white goods people need here in the North-East.
“I would like to think in a few years we could be making things like fridge-freezers and tumble dryers.
“In fact, fridge-freezers was where we wanted to be when Norfrost came onto the scene.”
Ebac’s status as the only UK-based washing machine maker will fill gap created when Indesit took production of Hotpoint machines to Italy.
The company could make more than 200,000 every year and has hopes of sales touching 50,000 in the first year.
However there are reports of redundancies at the Ebac factory, before production has even begun of over eighteen staff members and rumours of other parties looking at the business, one comment stating that Dyson had shown interest so, the whole affair may be up for sale before it has even produced a single washing machine.
