Asos (ASC) chairman Brian McBride spoke for many when he called Nick Robertson's tenure as the chief executive of the online retailer an "extraordinary achievement". Mr Robertson founded the company 15 years ago, floated it on the Aim market in 2001 - at a price of roughly 20p in the midst of a dotcom bubble - and witnessed the share price grow to a peak of nearly £70 a share by the start of 2014. Mr Robertson will hand over the reins to chief operating officer Nick Beighton who was promoted from finance director last October.
However, the past year has been quite a different story for Asos shareholders. An increasingly crowded marketplace has led to a string of profit warnings, which have dragged the share price down to a low of £19 last October. It is now £29. International trading hasn't been as strong as first hoped, and currency movements and a fire at the main warehouse in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, cost it tens of millions in sales.
Back in July, things appeared to be improving when management said further discounting had reignited international growth, with overall retail sales up by a fifth in the four months ended June. Margins appeared to be in recovery, too: retail gross margins were up 280 basis points on the prior year at last count. The website also seems to be as popular as ever, with the number of customers continually on the rise. By the end of June, Asos had 9.7m 'active' customers (defined as having shopped in the past 12 months), an 11 per cent improvement year on year.
