William Ball director Terry Ball has hit back at the company's board of directors after being made redundant as part of a 'major restructuring programme'.

"The William Ball board of directors (which includes my sister Linda Reed, my brother-in-law Bill Reed and my nephew Matt Ball) has taken the decision to make me redundant," he confirmed.

"I am obviously saddened at being betrayed by the consultant, my family directors, Peter Loftus and Gavin Abel, all of whom I appointed to support me in building a successful company."

Ball claims a business consultant he recommended to help the company tackle the market downturn had instead ultimately led a plot to remove him.

"The directors are of the opinion that the company has a better future without me," he explained, "but unfortunately they are being led by a consultant Mr A. Pratt (seriously that is his name) who was appointed in January 2010 at my recommendation, to work to my brief, to help improve the efficiency and overall performance of the company, but instead of helping me, he organised a coup against me.

"I am sure many customers and suppliers will find the situation unbelievable, but it has happened despite the fact that I am a 25% shareholder and my two sons own another 20%. The combined 45% was not enough to prevent the decision to make me redundant. Please note, I am not responsible for any of the decisions that have been taken in the past few months and I am not responsible for any actions taken by the William Ball board of directors from 12th June 2010."

Responding to Ball's accusations, Peter Loftus, sales & marketing director, William Ball Ltd, admitted that after "significant cumulative losses since 2002, the company had reached a juncture whereby some significant changes had to be made in order to take it forward.

"It has been necessary to greatly reduce our cost base in order to keep it in line with our current level of business and as a result there have been a loss of 49 jobs across our business - some having accepted voluntary redundancy and some compulsory redundancies and some due to natural wastage. Terry is the 50th employee to leave the business - reducing our workforce from 163 to 113.

"I should stress that no 'boardroom coup' has taken place," Loftus continued. "This couldn't be further from the truth. The simple fact is that the board has been forced to make some very tough decisions in order to reverse the sales losses it has sustained and the cost overhead structure it was operating under. Unfortunately the business found itself in a position where it could no longer justify the cost burden of Terry's salary and it was felt by the board that his functions within the business were being undertaken by other members of the team.

"We still have some tough decisions ahead of us, but in the last seven months our sales levels have begun to increase, we believe that our restructuring has left us better equipped to deal with the market challenges ahead of us." However, Ball countered this explanation, claiming the current board had turned against him after rejecting his pleas for them to work more closely with their retail partners.

"The effects of the recession made it necessary for me to demand extra commitment from all directors by visiting customers to build strong relationships and to understand first hand what difficulties our dealers were experiencing," he said. "Sadly none of them recognised the importance of doing so. My criticism of their attitude led to a revolt against my authority and ultimately led to my redundancy.

My passion for the kitchen industry will now be channelled into a new company, Terence Ball Kitchens Ltd, and I look forward to the opportunity of discussing potential business with you.