The buck has finally stopped with Nick Buckles. In 2011, after the abandoned and embarrassing £5.2bn bid for Danish rival ISS, it was G4S's chairman who walked the plank. After the Olympics shambles, a couple of deputies were shot. But a group-wide profits warning a fortnight ago was more serious in the eyes of investors. Buckles had run out of chances.
His problem was that he had promised a 7% profit margin but warned two months later that he would produce only 6.5%. When your turnover is £7.5bn, half a percentage point matters.
A fresh start under fresh management, led by new chief executive Ashley Almanza, will make everybody feel better. You have to wonder, though, whether the end of the Buckles go-go era marks the start of a period of retrenchment for G4S. A business with 620,000 employees in 125 countries provides its management with a challenge and a half, as has been acknowledged with the appointment of a chief operating officer.
The shares, after the profits warning, descended to a level where they are supposedly rated soberly. Let's hear first what the new team makes of their inheritance. The services sector is littered with examples of companies having to re-set their profit margins at permanently lower levels. Buckles thought 7% could be regained in time. Will his successor?
