Gerard Murray, a long-standing director at car distributor Reg Vardy, said yesterday he would quit as chief executive after just 18 months in the top job - with a £240,000 pay-off and no job offers.
The ambitiously expanding group said Mr Murray was leaving to "pursue other business interests" when he leaves at the end of this month and would be permanently replaced by Sir Peter Vardy, current chairman. He in turn is replaced by John Standen in a non-executive role.
Sir Peter, chairman and chief executive until May last year, said: "Gerard talked to us a few weeks ago. I did everything I could to persuade him to stay and to look at other roles within the group but he decided to go which is very sad for me and the company." Mr Murray is the second chief executive to quit in three years - after Graham Potts, another long-standing director.
Sir Peter said that the departure of Mr Murray, who had been company secretary and finance director since joining Reg Vardy in 1988, was not caused by problems at the group.
"There's nothing the matter, there are no black holes or other issues anywhere; the group is in good shape and moving forward," he said.
Reg Vardy, based in Sunderland, last year declared £33.5m pre-tax profits on sales of £1.39bn after what Sir Peter called its most successful year. He said this year's annual results would be in line with expectations.
In a separate trading statement it said sales would be boosted in the second half while, in the first six months, stronger sales of used cars had compensated for a softer performance in new cars. Analysts expect it to increase pre-tax earnings to £35m-£36m.
Sir Peter said the group's target was to acquire 10% of dealerships with car firms such as Vauxhall, Nissan and Renault and to expand its presence among specialist firms such as BMW and Mercedes.
The group, which operates 73 dealerships, plans to expand to more than 100 as the market is opened up to competition with next year's ending of the so-called block exemption tying manufacturers to dealers under EU rules. Vardy aims to increase its annual turnover to £2bn.
Sir Peter, who has indicated the group is looking for a "sizeable" acquisition, said: "This is now a tremendous industry to be in and one going through a fair degree of change."
