Stephen Maskens, chief executive officer, and Jon McCarthy, project development manager, have both resigned from their positions at Hipstar. The firm has also sacked a ‘number’ of temporary staff and further recruitment has been put on hold. Staff numbers now stand at 24.
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Richard Griffiths, chief executive officer of Network Data Holdings plc, Hipstars’ parent company, has now taken over the running of Hipstar until further notice.
The restructure came after a rumoured £3 million investment by Network Data into HIPs. It also stated in the past that this year’s stock market expectations would be largely determined by Hipstar.
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Griffiths said: “The phased introduction means that HIP providers will be looking at a volume of business one-fifth of that expected with a full launch. There is also no clarity of when the programme will be extended. Consequently, all HIPs providers have had to look carefully at the costs being incurred.
We feel a more sales-focused management team is required moving forward. We continue to maintain a long-term view of the HIPs.”
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Alan Dring, sales director of eConveyancer, said: “The role these executives took was on the investment side, which will no longer be there. Whatever the market looks like after 1 August, it will not be anything like previously envisaged. I doubt this will be the last we hear of changes in the HIPs sector”
