Woolworths chief to step down

British retailer Woolworths Group has asked its chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones to step down as it unveiled a deterioration in sales and margins for the year to date.

Woolworths has 19 stores in Northern Ireland with a twentieth due to open in Belfast's Park Centre tomorrow. Across the UK it has 800 outlets. It not longer operates in the Republic but does have 17 franchised Ladybird outlets.

The company said this morning that now was the right time to seek new leadership.

"The timing was down to the board but this is the sensible moment to make the change. It's entirely amicable and Trevor has a contract which we will honour in full," chairman Richard North told said.

Mr Bish-Jones has struggled to revive the retailer in six-and-a-half years with the group. He will continue in his role for the next three months while the search for his successor is ongoing.

"Nothing more has happened other than appointing the head hunters and giving them the initial brief but both internal and external candidates will be considered," said Mr North.

Woolworths said like-for-like sales at its high street stores fell 2.2 per cent in the first 19 weeks of its financial year, in line with expectations and an improvement on the 3.2 per cent slide reported for the year ending February.

The variety retailer said the deterioration was due to cost price pressures and the fact it has been selling more lower margin entertainment products and less higher margin goods and big ticket electrical items.

At 9.45am shares in Woolworths, which have fallen around 70 per cent in the last year, were down 6 per cent at 9.16 pence.

Additional reporting Reuters