ABSTRACT
On 23 December 1978, Malcolm Evans, Managing Director of SFL, returned from a business trip to France to find a note on top of his desk. It contained the resignations of his two partners, David Cole, Sales Director, and Cyril Cox, Production Director. Further, it very soon became clear that they had decided to set up a new business in competition and by promising them a shareholding had taken a number of SFL employees with them including the company accountant, its secretary/typist, the production co-ordinator, a senior designer, a welder and a plater. Malcolm Evans had to decide whether there was any business left for him, whether he could cope with a half-completed £1.4 million contract and, indeed, whether his major investors, ICFC, would support him.
