Simon Fox, who has battled to turn around troubled retailer HMV for six years, has abruptly resigned as chief executive.
HMV announced on Thursday that Fox, who two years ago showed loyalty and faith in reinvigorating the company when he turned down the opportunity to run ITV, will leave the company on 3 September.
Trevor Moore, the former chief executive of photography chain Jessops, has been appointed as Fox's replacement.
HMV, which has 233 stores in Britain and Ireland, has struggled to compete against online retailers with sales of physical CDs and DVDs plummeting.
The 90-year-old retailer, famous for its Nipper the dog trademark, has been hammered by the recession as well as online and supermarket competition. At its last results in April it reported that like for like sales were down 13.2% in the most recent quarter; for the full year like-for-likes were down 4.3%.
The company has also been hamstrung by a huge debt that has weighed heavily on its finances.
HMV expects to report a loss of about £16m for its last financial year, though Fox surprised investors in May by predicting that the company will return a profit before tax of at least £10m in 2012/13.
The collapse of rival home entertainment retailer Game in March provided a temporary boost for HMV, and as the company was the last remaining nationwide music and DVD specialist Fox was able to strike a deal with suppliers to prop up the business with preferential terms for CDs and games.
"I am proud to be leaving HMV with a profitable future secured," Fox said.
Nevertheless, this year HMV was forced into a review of its business that resulted in a decision to sell off its portfolio of 13 live event venues across Britain.
In June HMV sold the Hammersmith Apollo – which since 1932 has hosted acts as varied as Oasis, Queen, the Beatles, David Bowie and Peter Kay – to a consortium that includes the owner of the O2 Arena, for £32m. HMV took it over in 2010.
The hunt for prospective buyers for other parts of its live business, which also includes festivals such as Lovebox in London and Global Gathering near Stratford-upon-Avon, continues.
"[Fox] has led the company through a turbulent period for the entertainment retailing industry and has played an invaluable part in securing HMV's future, not least by strengthening relations with suppliers and successfully refinancing HMV's bank borrowings," said Philip Rowley, chairman of HMV.
Fox has fought hard to turn around the business after it came close to collapse last year. In May last year he secured a deal to sell the Waterstones book chain to a fund controlled by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut for £53m.
He has replaced some of the CD and DVD displays with technology products such as tablet computers and iPods.
The group has also moved into the £150m specialist headphones market endorsed by pop stars such as Dr Dre and Lady Gaga, opening a pop-up technology store in the Square Mile shopping centre One New Change in the run up to last Christmas.
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