Two senior executives of Sir Philip Green’s fashion and homewares retailer Bhs have left the business.
Buying director of womenswear, footwear and accessories Linda Bolger and divisional merchandising director of womenswear Simon Calvert have both stepped down.
Green told Retail Week that the departures were not linked to any wider restructure, and described them as “just a change of personnel”.
Bhs has not yet recruited replacements for either role. Bolger is understood to have departed three weeks ago. It is not known if she had a job to go to. Calvert is taking up the role of merchandising and logistics director at Republic.
Green has been working on consolidating his Arcadia and Bhs businesses since 2009.
In 2010, he sold a package of 10 Bhs stores to value retailer Primark and was mulling further exits last year. He has also been putting Arcadia’s various chains, such as Dorothy Perkins and Burton, into larger Bhs stores to reduce the group’s rent bill.
Arcadia took a hit to profits in the year to August 28, 2011 as it absorbed £53m of cost resulting from last year’s VAT rise, rather than pass it on to shoppers. Group pre-tax profits plunged £80.1m to £133.1m.
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