The first female chief executive of North West-headquartered Sofology has stepped down.
Sally Hopson left the role recently after first joining the DFS-owned company in September 2018.
Prior to being hired she had been chief executive of Pets at Home Vet group from February 2014.
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She has also previously held roles with the likes of Asda, brewer and pub operator J.W Lees and Habitat UK.
Mrs Hopson, who was awarded an MBE in 2006, now has a part-time role as an advisor to the board of Pet Network Group in Croatia.
Sofology was founded in Clayton-le-Moors, Lancashire, in 1974 and is now headquartered in Golborne.
In 2017 the company was bought by furniture giant DFS.
In an interview published on Sofology's website in 2019 to mark International Women's Day, Mrs Hopson said: "I had no plan to be a CEO – I had no plan at all. There are days when I pinch myself that I’m even here.
"When I left university, I had this idea that I was going to do a PHD, but I needed to get a job. So I got a job in a shop and went from one role to the next.
"I became a store manager and then area manager, just working up the ladder that exists within retail and taking every opportunity that came along. I took some which I didn’t like, but I learnt from those, and that’s absolutely fine too.
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"The thing that worries me about plans is, when you get there, it’s not always what you thought it was going to be. You get very driven, but I think you start to exclude other opportunities – and that’s a real shame."
