Maintel has posted some excellent interim half-year numbers but for some reason its CEO  Eddie Buxton is leaving  by the end of December, by “mutual agreement.”

Revenues fell for the first half, pre-tax profits increased thanks to the focus on higher-margin business, coming in at £1.5 million, compared to a £0.3 million loss in the same period last year. Revenue was down by three per cent to £64.5 million, but gross margin nudged up a couple of percentage points to reach 29 per cent.

The first-half results were used as an opportunity to reveal that after a decade long stint at Maintel its chief executive Eddie Buxton would leave by the end of December, by “mutual agreement”.

John Booth, chairman of Maintel, said: “Performance in the first six months of the year marks continued progress towards our goal of transforming Maintel into a cloud and managed services business and demonstrates the benefits we are receiving from investment in our cloud and software capability, notably improved margins and higher cash conversion.”

He stated that its ICON platform had continued to deliver growth with the number of contracted seats increasing at 32 per cent to come in over 66,000 and data revenues improved by six per cent as more users moved to the cloud.

But there were some issues that Booth wanted to address in the statement to investors, underlining the challenges that were out there in the second half.

“Notwithstanding this significant progress, Group revenue in the period was impacted by the continued market transition to new technologies driving both a change in the revenue profile for project implementation and the revenue of our support business. Also, we have seen some delays in the award of public sector contracts as the new Public Sector framework goes live,” he said.

In the interim statement, the board stressed it was keen to thank Buxton for his contribution and wished him well for the future.

“Since joining us in 2009, Eddie has overseen a period of significant growth for the Company and has led the transformation of Maintel into a cloud and managed services business. The Board would like to thank Eddie for his strong leadership during this time and wish him well for the future,” stated Booth.

The hunt for a replacement chief executive has started, and Maintel expects to be in the position to announce one shortly.