Mountford leaves Moss Bros

Philip Mountford, the chief executive of Moss Bros, is to leave the mens suit retailer on 31 January after nearly five years at the helm.

The retailer said he was stepping down by “mutual consent”, but it is unclear if he has a job to go to.

On Monday, Mr Mountford will resign from the board and leave at the end of the month. He joined Moss Bros as trading director in 2002 and was made chief executive in 2004.

On 1 December, Moss Bros warned on its full-year profits and said that its like-for-like sales for the 44 weeks to 29 November had fallen by 3.6 per cent.

At the time, Moss Bros said: “The challenging current trading environment is likely to have a materially adverse impact on market expectations for the full year.”

Mr Mountford was not available to comment.

Brian Brick, who has been a non-executive director at Moss Bros since 20 August 2008, will be appointed interim chief executive while it looks for a permanent replacement.

David Adams, the Moss Bros chairman who joined last year, said: “I would like to thank Philip for his work and leadership and wish him well in all his new endeavours.”

Bernie Myers is stepping down as a non-executive director of the retailer with effect from 19 January 2009. The board has started the process of recruiting new independent non-executive directors.