Battle for control at Victoria Carpets

A boardroom battle is brewing at Kidderminster carpet firm Victoria, which has put itself up for sale.

The directors are trying to fend of a bid by rebel shareholders to capture control of the business.

Before Christmas it was revealed the rebel consortium, which includes former Victoria chairman Alexander Anton – a member of the founding family – wanted to replace non-executive directors with its own people, giving it overall control of the business.

In response the management team, led by 38-year Victoria veteran Alan Bullock, announced on Friday that it was putting the business up for sale.

But, just hours later, Mr Anton and New Fortress Finance, which lead the consortium, issued a formal requisition to force the board to call a general meeting. They want to remove the two existing non-executive directors and replace them with four new non-execs, including Mr Anton and Katherine Innes Ker as new chairman.

Victoria said today it had rejected the requisition on technical grounds, as New Fortress was not a registered shareholder.

But this will only delay the process. Mr Anton owns 2% of the business and New Fortress Finance owns 18.3%, and they say they are backed by other shareholders holding 25.7% of Victoria's shares.

Victoria said today that it had set a deadline of the end of February for any firm offer for the business.