Three months after news that its CEO would be taking the top job at Fenwick, regional department store chain Morleys has named a new chief executive.

Allan Winstanley will take up the post in January, returning to the UK as Morleys CEO after having worked with Myer department stores in Australia where he co-led the turnaround of the business in the last eight years.

His experience also takes in time spent at Sears in the US, De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands (part of the Selfridges Group) and 10 years with House of Fraser in the UK. 

He started his career ay M&S and his previous directorships have been with The British Fashion Council and The UK Fragrance Foundation.

Morleys is an almost 100-year-old independent chain whose eight stores — under a variety of names — are located in the London suburbs and home counties.

Its latest set of accounts — covering the year to January — showed group profitability broadly in line with the previous year after the business face significant cost pressures that impacted its overall results. 

Its department stores store sales increasing by 4.2% although it faced low margins. Trading continue to be challenging across its portfolio and it was reviewing all the cost centres with a view to generating savings.

Total group sales including concessions and VAT added up to £108.7 million after £104 million a year earlier. Turnover increased to £70.6 million from £67.2 million and group profit before tax dipped to £7.7 million from £8.1 million. Finally, net profit for the period dropped to £5.2 million from £6.1 million.

The company sells fashion, beauty, homewares and toys, offering a mix of premium and middle-market brands such as Barbour, Nobody’s Child, Holland Cooper, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Coach, Levi’s, Rag & Bone, AllSaints, Birkenstock, Ugg, Michael Kors, Kate Spade and more.