The boss of the embattled Argos chain announced she is quitting as parent company Home Retail Group (LON:HOME) unveiled a 13 per cent fall in annual profits.
Sara Weller, the managing director in charge of the struggling catalogue retail operation, cited personal reasons for her departure.
"This has been an extremely difficult decision to make but it is absolutely in the best interests of my family and me,” Weller said.
“I have greatly enjoyed my time with Argos as we have successfully developed our multi-channel retailing offer.
“I will miss being part of the strong team that we have built within the business. I do not intend to take on another full-time executive role, but will be looking to expand my non-executive career for the future."
Home Retail chief Terry Duddy will assume her responsibilities until a replacement can be found.
He is presiding over a difficult period for Argos and its sister company Homebase, which have been hit by a downturn in consumer spending.
The annual results reveal pre-tax profits for the year to February 26 were £254.1 million, down from £292.9 million 12 months earlier.
Home Retail has already warned of an uncertain year ahead as consumers are squeezed by the January VAT hike and government austerity measures.
Argos saw like-for-like sales drop 5.6 per cent in the last financial year, while Homebase saw same-store sales decline 0.3 per cent.
The group is planning for a similar outcome in the current year, with falling sales at Argos and for Homebase sales to remain "broadly flat".
However, the group has been slashing costs over the past two years - making savings of £125 million - and said its strong cash position would help keep its investment programme on track.
Despite the fall in earnings, which was flagged up last month with a profits warning, the shares rose in early trade, adding around 4 per cent.
The fact today’s statement showed no further significant deterioration in the performance of Argos and Homebase appears to have driven the uptick in the stock to 216.9 pence, a rise of 7.9 pence.