Retail group Matalan has been put up for sale as it announced it had hired a former boss of New Look and The Range.
Nigel Oddy will join the Liverpool headquartered company on October 3 but will not oversee the sale process.
John Hargreaves, who founded the company in 1985 and only returned as chairman in July after executive chair Steve Johnson stepped down, has left his role in order to bid for the group.