Insight interview - Meller passes screen test.

(From Financial Director)

Byline: Andrew Sawers.

"It's Belron". You can almost relive David Meller's heart-stopping moment of disappointment. He had been through an exciting couple of years as finance director and then chief executive, desperately trying to rescue the stricken foods business Albert Fisher. He was notching up a couple of interesting troubleshooter roles as an interim manager.

And the headhunters had recently called to dangle before him a great finance job description with a large, highly branded service organisation.

And then they told him: it's Belron. He had, quite simply, never even heard of it.

When it was explained that Belron was the name of the EUR1bn holding company for the international windscreen repair and replacement business that trades in the UK as Autoglass, Meller became more interested. When he met chief executive Gary Lubner, he was almost hooked. Lubner is the third-generation of his family to head up the business and one of three family members currently on the board. Sounds a little too cosy, perhaps.

In fact, it's rarely a sign of an exciting, dynamic business.