Julia Reynolds, the CEO of outdoor equipment & clothing retailer Blacks Leisure, is to leave her position in the coming months, reports today suggest.
According to The Independent, Reynolds is to step down from the role she only assumed in August because its new owner is looking to change how the business is managed.
At the start of this year the struggling Blacks business, which operates Blacks and Millets shops in the UK, was acquired by sporting apparel retailer JD Sports for £20 million after entering administration.
Plummeting sales during the course of 2011 led the previously listed business to close stores and review its structure as it issued profit warnings to the market.
Reynolds was brought in as part of a new management team, along with Interim Chairman Peter Williams who is famous for reversing the fortunes of Selfridges last decade, to try and turn the business around, but it now appears that JD Sports has its own plans for reviving the ailing retailer.
Although no one from JD Sports was willing to comment on the rumoured departure of Reynolds, The Independent understands that the new owner intends to change the role of Blacks CEO once its integration into the wider business has been completed.
Before joining Blacks, Reynolds was CEO of lingerie retailer Figleaves.com having spent an earlier part of her career as a buyer for Topshop & Burtons owner Arcadia.
She was picked for the role at Blacks specifically for her experience in trying to revive businesses, having made lots of changes at Figleaves to try and help it make a profit for the first time in more than a decade, a feat it finally achieved in the year ending March 3rd 2012.
