Elders chief executive Malcolm Jackman says he is leaving the rural services provider in good shape – but not great shape.

Elders said on Wednesday that Mr Jackman would be leaving the company immediately, after five years at the helm.

Elders spoke with Mr Jackman earlier in the year about his retirement, but the decision to bring it forward was reached after more talks last week.

Elders chairman Mark Allison said an extensive restructure and refocusing of Elders on its core rural services business was on track for completion in early 2014.

So it was an appropriate time for Mr Jackman to step down.

“It’s all done in the right way. There’s no bad blood or anything like that and no great conspiracy theory,” Mr Jackman told AAP.

Mr Jackman was satisfied that Elders was primed for improvement.

“It (Elders) is in good shape. It’s not in great shape,” he said.

“We still need to go through some recapitalisation, and that process will carry on.”

Mr Jackman said the restructuring of Elders, begun five years ago, had been a lot harder than anyone had anticipated.

“This company had a mountain of debt when I arrived,” he said.

“Just the need to pay down debt means that the working capital inside the business is being sucked out by debt repayment.”

Elders’ timber business had also burned up cash.

This meant that Elders was always operating at the limits of its banking facilities and working capital.

“We’ve become bloody good at it, but nonetheless, it’s still very, very hard work,” Mr Jackman said.

Mr Allison will oversee an executive committee, comprising all members of the company’s leadership team, until a replacement for Mr Jackman is found.

Last week, Elders booked an annual loss of $505 million, partly as a result of charges related to the company’s moves to focus on rural services and pull out of its timber and automotive interiors businesses.

Dry seasonal conditions and lower livestock prices also affected the company’s financial results.

In addition, Elders’ rural services business took a $24.2 million hit to earnings from accounting discrepancies in the live export business.

Elders has been axing jobs, cutting costs and reorganising its operations to reduce debt.

Elders has sold its automotive interiors business, reduced its stake in a joint-venture insurance business and has almost completed its withdrawal from the timber industry.

It had also intended to sell its rural services business, but dropped the sales process in June after rejecting a takeover offer for the rural services operations from Ruralco.

Elders subsequently agreed to terms with its financiers on renewing and extending its debt facilities, as part of a plan to reposition Elders as a pure agribusiness.

Shares in Elders were 0.5 cents higher at 12 cents at 1422 AEDT.