Four months in the top job at Rentokil and Alan Brown was running out of time to spell out the mess that his predecessor, Doug Flynn, left at the company. He seized the moment with a candour rarely heard publicly in the City.

Rentokil has had four profit warnings in seven months, the latest coming on Friday. Two have been on Mr Brown’s watch. But as far as he is concerned, “virtually all” of the group’s problems stem from actions taken between 2005 and 2007. To re-cap, Mr Flynn was the boss between April 2005 and March this year. Aspects of Mr Flynn’s management – such as serving customers who had not paid a bill for four years – were crass, says Mr Brown.