The pre-Christmas boardroom reshuffle at James Crean which sees Ray McLoughin take over from Domhnall McCullough as chairman while staying on as chief executive as a "temporary arrangement" has been described in the market as akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.Bringing in Alastair McGuckian and Gerry O'Toole as non-executive directors is, however, a good move for a board that had become tired-looking. What has astonished some shareholders, however, is that Ray McLoughlin has taken over the chairman's job temporarily with no readymade successor in the wings.Mr McLoughlin's further profits warning and vague talk of bringing in "strategic investors" has done little to improve sentiment towards the share.It may all be too little too late for Crean, as far as the market is concerned.

Even the appointment of a dynamic new chairman, if such an animal exists, is unlikely to lift the pall of gloom that has settled over what was once one of Ireland's success stories and which enjoyed an institutional fan club most public companies envied.Maybe it's time the Crean management put shareholders out of their pain and followed the example of Jones Group by selling off virtually everything and putting some money back into shareholders' pockets. The constant chopping and changing at Crean has meant that there is little confidence in management to do anything else that might restore the company's fortunes.Jones has been another disaster for investors, but at least the Jones board seems to have accepted the inevitable with its decision to sell off the shipping and manufacturing divisions and distribute the net proceeds, after paying off debt, to shareholders.