Trio of bosses ousted in Liberty shake-out

NIC CICUTTI

Liberty, the 120-year-old retail and textiles group, yesterday ousted three of its most senior executives as part of its bid to restore the troubled company to profitability.

Tony Salem, group retail director, Tom Logan, merchandise director and John Pugh, company secretary, are leaving the company by the end of this month.

The departing executives had already lost their position on the Liberty board in April, at the same time as Patrick Austen, Liberty's chief executive, departed after a three-year stint at the company's helm.

Denis Cassidy, chairman at Liberty, said at the time: "They [the three] have been around a long time and they have been part of a board that has watched a decline in the brand."

Ian Thomson, group managing director, said: "These moves follow the recent statements made by the chairman and are designed to strengthen resources to accelerate the process of recreating and developing Liberty as a premium quality international consumer products brand."

Replacing Mr Sales as retail operations director will be Anthony Hancock, who takes responsibility for Liberty's regent Street store and its airport shops. He held a similar post at House of Fraser. Claire Garabedian, who as merchandise director will be responsible for retail, has been at Liberty for 15 months. She previously worked at Harrods, House of Fraser and Harvey Nichols.