LONDON: Stationery-to-books retailer WHSmith on Thursday announced the resignation of chief executive Kate Swann, who becomes the second long-serving female boss of a top British company to step aside in recent days.
"WHSmith announces that Kate Swann is, after nine years, to step down as chief executive of the company on 30 June 2013," the retailer said, adding that her replacement would be the head of its high street store division, Steve Clarke.
Just last week, British publisher Pearson announced that its chief executive Marjorie Scardino would depart her post later this year, ending a 16-year tenure at the group which owns the Financial Times newspaper.
Swann's own departure was announced as WHSmith unveiled a 10-percent jump in annual profits, despite challenging trading conditions in recession-hit Britain.
Pre-tax profits climbed to £102 million ($163 million, 127 million euros) in the group's financial year to the end of August, compared with £93 million last time around, the group revealed in a statement.
WHSmith, which employs 16,000 staff, also sells greetings cards, magazines and confectionery from its many stores in shopping districts, railway stations and airports.
The company's share price fell 4.31 percent to 623.93 pence in late morning deals on London's second-tier FTSE 250 index, which was 0.36 percent higher at 11,870.32 points.
Scardino became the first woman to head a company on the top tier FTSE 100 index when she joined Pearson in 1997.
Following her departure, the only remaining female chief executives of FTSE 100 companies were to be Burberry's Angela Ahrendts, Anglo American's Cynthia Carroll and Imperial Tobacco's Alison Cooper. (AFP)
