BATTLE lines have been drawn after the vice-chairman of Shepherd Neame quit in a family feud over the running of the business.

Stuart Neame, 58, resigned last week before the company's annual meeting on Friday claiming the firm's structure made it a sitting duck for an asset-stripper to buy the company for its pubs and to close the brewery.

New policies he said needed a new chairman and he called for the current chairman, his cousin Bobby Neame, to stand down when he turns 70 in February during the meeting.

Speculation has mounted that he walked out having been told he was not going to become chairman.

But Mr Neame denied it was frustrated ambition and says that within the past four years no one had told him he would not become chairman.

The health of the firm was his priority and he had presented a paper to the board, which would be considered next year, calling for the splitting of the company into property and trading companies.

"We must all hope that my resignation will finally encourage the directors to take their heads out of the sand, and take the steps so urgently necessary for the company's survival," he said.

After the meeting chief executive Jonathan Neame and members of the board held a press conference.

They said Bobby Neame had received the full backing of the shareholders, but he would seek re-election at next year's annual meeting with the intention of staying on until 2005.

Senior non-executive director Martin Bunting: "Stuart Neame was told that he wouldn't be the next chairman and he has said that he didn't want to be."

Shareholders had overwhelmingly backed the policies of a vertically integrated approach where pubs and brewing come under one roof.