Croft, taken on nine months before a management buy-out last year, was expected to take over the company from chairman and chief executive Peter Furlonge, who changed tack and decided to stay at the East London firm.

"I felt I wanted to quieten down and bail out sooner or later but had a change of heart and just couldn't walk away," said Furlonge, whose shareholding is over 60% and who recently purchased local firm 3D Digital.

"When John joined, he hoped to run the company and the role isn't what he thought it was going to be. There's no ill feeling at all. John's an absolutely charming man and it's sad the job was not correct for his career path." Croft said: "Peter has a very hands-on role as chairman and is doing a great job running the sales team. It didn't seem there was much left for me to do and I decided it was a good time to move on."