Crawshaw top two hand in their cleavers

Crawshaw Group's chief executive and finance director have resigned from the value butcher, which revealed trading has been challenging in the first few weeks of its new financial year.

Chief executive Noel Collett told the board he wanted to step down but will remain in his role until a replacement CEO is appointed to ensure an orderly handover.

Likewise, chief financial officer Alan Richardson also handed in his badge and his cleaver in order to take up another job. He will leave in early May.

AIM-listed Crawshaw reassured that trading for the year to January 2018 remains unchanged and the full year results will be announced in April.

Trading in the first 6 weeks of the new financial year "has been challenging, exacerbated by the recent poor weather but the factory shop format continues to perform well".

Chairman Jim McCarthy said: "The board of Crawshaw thanks Noel and Alan for their contribution and wishes them success in their future endeavours. We anticipate being in a position to announce a new CEO and CFO in the near term who will help drive the business forward."