Founder set to fix it at Bob's

PETER Orton, founder and chairman of Bob the Builder group HIT Entertainment, grabbed back the reins today after the ousting of chief executive Rob Lawes.

Lawes, 37, who has been with HIT for 15 years and chief executive for the past three, left the company immediately. Orton, who becomes acting chief exec, said negotiations over Lawes' pay-off were continuing. He was on a six-month contract and last year got a total of £409,000.

HIT finally announced the launch of its long-awaited US children's channel in a joint venture with Comcast and PBS which will allow it to get Bob, Barney the Purple Dinosaur and Thomas the Tank Engine into 105m US homes 24 hours a day.

Orton said non-executive directors, led by himself, decided HIT needed someone with 'experience of US broadcasting' to lead it in future. But he also admitted Lawes' departure had been speeded by the fact that HIT issued a profits warning in the summer after Wal-Mart slashed the amount of shelf-room it gave to the group's video cassettes.

He stressed the boardroom coup did not mean there were any financial irregularities but the news unsettled the shares, down 8p to 211p.

Underlying profits dropped 9% to £36.1m in the year to July on turnover down 12% at £148m. Orton said HIT will invest $32m (£17.7m) in the US children's channel over the next five years and expected it to be profitable in the third year. HIT will have a 30% stake.