Angela Spindler, an executive director of Asda and global managing director of the £2bn George label, is one of the UK's most senior female retailers. She resigned last week and left the same day.

Wal-Mart owned Asda said she had left "for family reasons".

However, her departure comes as George's growth has slowed in comparison to rivals, especially Primark and Tesco.

Asda chief executive Andy Bond, who previously ran the George business, has taken day-to-control of the business until a replacement is appointed.

He will be supported by chief operating officer Mark Daynes and brand director Fiona Lambert, a former George executive who recently who rejoined Asda from Next.

Ms Spindler, a 45-year-old mother of teenaged children, has worked for Asda for 10 years and rose through the ranks. She was trading and marketing director prior to taking over at George.

In an internal note sent out to staff at Asda's Leeds head office chief executive Andy Bond said he was "disappointed" that Ms Spindler had resigned. He added: "Angela has been thinking about this for a while and has decided she would like to spend more time with her family. We have agreed that she can leave Asda right away". He said he planned to appoint a successor "in time".

Ms Spindler signed up Wayne Rooney's fiance Coleen McLoughlin as the "face" of Asda and last month announced plans to start selling George fashions online next year. She was also working on a relaunch of the brand in the US next year.

However, she failed to find a way of successfully and profitably transferring the George label into stand-alone high street stores where it could have gone head-to-head with rivals like New Look and Primark.

Two market research reports in the past fortnight have shown George to be underperforming its rivals. A Worldpanel Fashion survey by TNS showed Primark has replaced Asda as the UK's second biggest clothing retailer by volume (the number of clothing items sold) with 8.9% of the market. Tesco has also moved ahead of Asda, with 8.6%, compared to Asda's 7.5%.

Marks & Spencer is the biggest, with 11.4% of clothing volume, but just 12 months ago Asda was second largest with 8.2%, Tesco had 8.1% and Primark 6.6%.

A separate report by Verdict Research shows Asda's George with a steady 2.9% of the womenswear market by sales value, while almost all its big rivals have continued to grow.

Maureen Hinton, an analyst at Verdict, said George had lost ground as a result of not opening new store space as rapidly as Primark and Tesco. She said the Asda label had also "lost some of the impetus it once had", was not getting as much publicity as it once did and had "lagged some of the competition in moving online".

Verdict has also recently warned that the days of ever cheaper clothing, which have seen George thrive, could be numbered as consumers seek out quality again, rather than simply value.

Asda has recently launched a more upmarket George label , G21, in a bid to attract more aspirational shoppers.

The grocer insisted it is "very happy" with the performance of its fashion business.

Ms Spindler was seen as a potential chief executive of Asda when Andy Bond was appointed two years ago and her name was linked with Wm Morrison when the Bradford-based grocer was searching for a new chief executive last year. She spent the early part of her career at Mars, which proved a breeding ground for top retail bosses.

Her contemporaries at Mars included Justing King, now chief executive of sainsburys and Richard Baker, the former chief of Alliance Boots.

Courtesy: Guardian Unlimited 

Published in : The News, Fashion & Beauty

Keywords : News, Fashion & Beauty, Boss of Asda's George fashion label unexpectedly quits

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