Garden centre chain Wyevale has named September 12 as the date for a showdown with rebel shareholders who want to remove its chairman.
The extraordinary general meeting has been requisitioned by activist investment group Laxey Partners, which is Wyevale's largest shareholder with a 19 per cent stake in the Hereford- based company.
Laxey is proposing the removal from the Wyevale board of chairman David Williams and the appointment of Robert Ware, a former director of property group MEPC, in his place.
It has also put forward resolutions seeking the removal of non-executive directors Andrew Lewis-Pratt and Dianne Thompson. The board of Wyevale is unanimously recommending shareholders vote against Laxey's proposal.
Mr Williams was confident Laxey could be beaten off.
He said: "The board has had tremendous support from institutional shareholders and from private shareholders," adding that Hermes, a four per cent shareholder, and Fidelity, which holds 6.5 per cent, were both " very supportive".
Asked if he believed Laxey had the support of any other institutions apart from fellow hedge fund Millennium Partners, which holds 10.1 per cent, he said: "I think the American expression is zip."
"The simple fact is Laxey failed to get their person in when I was appointed in February, they failed to get their person in at the AGM in April and I regard this quite simply as a dummy spit."
Wyevale announced Laxey's call for an EGM on July 26. At the same time it said several parties were considering making an offer for the retailer. However, Mr Williams said his "ideal scenario" would be "to develop Wyevale into the super brand that it can be".
The cost of the EGM and bid process was about £2 million.
He said: "This has been a costly distraction and all shareholders are having to pay for one shareholder's attitude."
Wyvale closed down 1.5 at 575.5p.
