Her departure comes after a long stint of declining profits, a profit warning in January and a strategic rethink, which the business will unveil next month.

Although the retailer said her departure was a mutual decision, her rapid exit – announced just days earlier and before a successor was secured – perhaps indicates she was pointed towards the door rather than walking to it entirely of her own volition.

In the world of trigger-happy shareholders and a forensic focus on growth, it is perhaps not surprising that Hubbard’s tenure at the helm of a listed retailer came to an end.

What is surprising is the almost total vacuum of other women running listed retailers now that she’s gone.